About Molmik

• Our research

  It is increasingly difficult to treat infections due to the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria (including penicillin-resistant S. pneumoniae and methicillin-resistant S. aureus, MRSA). An understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind antibiotic resistance will lead to better treatment methods. 

  We study different molecular mechanisms to understand antibiotic resistance and identify novel antimicrobial target sites in pneumococci (S. pneumoniae) and staphylococci (S. aureus). These pathogens are responsible for millions of deaths worldwide every year.

• Group members

  Masterstudents:

  Silje Henriette Aadne - Project: penicillin-resistance in pneumooccci

  Matilde Hustad - Project: genes affecting antimicrobial resistance in Staphyloocccus aureus

  Mari Gjeitnes - Project: penicillin-resistance in pneumooccci

  Mats Rune Pettersen - Project: biofilms and bacteriocins 

News from MolMik

• September 2022: Rebekka started her PhD in the group. Welcome and good luck!
• September 2022: Daniel was appointed Associate professor! Congratulations!
• August 2022: Matilde, Silje, Mari and Mats started their master thesis work in lab this month. Welcome!

• August 2022: New preprint on the link between competence and pneumococcal virulence in collaboration with the Veening-lab and others: Competence remodels the pneumococcal cell wall providing resistance to fratricide and surface exposing key virulence factors.
• August 2022: New paper in mBio from the lab of Aras Kadioglu and Marie Yang where we have made a small contribution: Streptococcus pneumoniae rapidly translocates from the nasopharynx through the cribiform plate to invade the outer meninges.
• June 2022: mBio has published a commentary to our article on SmdA: Finding new fundamental pieces for the staphylococcal cell division puzzle.
• June 2022: Congratulations to Vilde, Jennie, Anne, Ingrid, Tiril and Rebekka with successfully defending their master theses and finishing their master degrees. 
• June 2022: We have an open PhD-position in molecular microbiology. Application deadline: July 10th.
• June 2022: Sara will organize a Native-Scientist workshop for Spanish-speaking children in Oslo. Read more about it here.
• June 2022: Danae, Marita and Morten will present work from the group at International Conference on Bacilli and Gram-positive conference in Prague.
• March 2022: Our paper on the novel staphylococcal morphology determinant SmdA has been published in mBio!
• January 2022: Sara Arbulu started as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow in the lab. She will work on the project BOB, where she will study how oral streptococcal pathogens form biofilms and how bacteriocins and bacteriocin immunity genes contribute to this process. Welcome, Sara!
• January 2022: Inteview with Ine, where she talks about her PhD-project, is published at forskning.no. A piece about Ine's work is also published in Dagens Medisin!
• January 2022: Anne Ohren Nordraak started her master thesis work this week on antibiotics and bovine mastitis pathogens. Welcome and good luck!