News

  • Congratulations to Gabriel!

    August 11, 2025
    PriME Dr. #5 in 2025 is Gabriel 🥳!! Gabriel joined PriME five years ago as a PhD student in Otto Codero’s lab. During his PhD he used genetic tools, computational models and microscopy to understand how metabolic constraints and microbial interactions shape the spatial organization of communities, and vice-versa. He has recently defended his thesis […]

  • A warm welcome to Melanie!

    August 7, 2025
    We’re happy to welcome Melanie Stäubli to PriME as a Postdoctoral researcher in the Levine group. Melanie is a microbial ecologist with a strong background in quantitative modeling, passionate about deciphering the eco‑evolutionary forces that shape microbial community dynamics. Her current research focuses on understanding how phycosphere interactions affect the dynamics of phytoplankton communities and […]

  • Welcome to PriME, Nittay!

    July 8, 2025
    Nittay joins us as a PostDoc in the Schubert/Ackermann lab after completing his PhD at the Hebrew University, where he explored how microbial interactions shape evolutionary outcomes. Within PriME, he will investigate how catabolic cascades emerge from species’ proteomic strategies, and what implications these strategies have for community responses to environmental changes. We’re looking forward […]

  • Mission Accomplished, Margot! 🚀

    June 23, 2025
    🎓Congratulations to Margot on successfully defending her PhD “Environmental and structural drivers of algal glycan persistence in the ocean” under the supervision of Prof. Jan-Hendrick. She joined our network over 3 years ago and has been deeply engaged ever since. Thanks for your great contribution to PriME — we’re happy you’ll be staying with us […]

  • Our new PostDoc, Michaela! 😃

    June 3, 2025
    We are happy to welcome Michaela, who recently joined us as a PostDoc at the Cordero’s lab!   She has a background in Chemical Engineering and will explore how changes in cellular function impact microbial community dynamics, applying her expertise in metabolic engineering, protein engineering, and synthetic biology. Wishing you a great start in PriME! […]

  • You rocked it, Juanita 💪

    May 5, 2025
    Huge congratulations to Juanita 🥳!   Juanita formally joined PriME in 2022 as a PhD student in Roman Stocker’s lab. Her project focused on investigating how bacteria can modulate changes in their physiology when they experience fluctuations in nutrient concentrations, a condition that closely mimic microbial environments. For this, she not only developed novel milli-fluidics […]

  • Congratulations, Shaelyn!

    May 1, 2025
    Well done Shaelyn 👏!   Shaelyn joined PriME in 2022 as a PhD student in Victoria Orphan’s lab. During these years she investigated how the spatial structures and functions of microbial communities drive their activities on diatom particles. She used activity-based techniques to explore microbial activity at the single-cell level on particles. She has recently […]

  • PriME regional meetings

    March 7, 2025
    In February and March, we held our regional PriME meetings in US and Europe! More than 20 members of our community gathered in LA and in Zurich respectively and engaged in workshops, group discussions, and presentations – fostering scientific exchange, networking, new ideas, and potential collaborations. Thank you to everyone who joined and contributed! We […]

  • Great job, Nguyen!

    February 20, 2025
    We congratulate Nguyen on successfully defending her PhD thesis on “Re-entrant Phase Separation of Fucoidan-Protein System” 👏 Nguyen joined PriME as a PhD student in Jan-Henrick Hehemann’s group where she investigated the molecular interaction between proteins and polysaccharides, and how the interaction manifests in bacterial cell physiology. We wish her all the best in her […]

  • Welcome to the team, Rashi 🤗

    January 14, 2025
    Excited to welcome Rashi to PriME!   She earned her bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering from Caltech before joining the Cordero Lab at MIT to pursue a PhD. Her interests lie in applying quantitative approaches, particularly bioinformatics and genetic tools, to the biology, ecology, and evolution of microbial communities.   Looking forward to working together, Rashi! […]