René L. Bærentsen has during the course of his Ph.D. study researched into how bacteria are capable of surviving antibiotics, virus attack or starvation by entering hibernation. These hibernating bacteria have shown to be closely involved with the development and spread of multi-resistance. René L. Bærentsen has investigated two systems, one that becomes active when the bacteria start entering hibernation, and one that can start the hibernation process outside the normal pathway.

The work contributes to the understanding of how these and more systems interplay to give bacteria a wide defence against several types of attacks, and there will be presented potential ways how they can be circumvented, thereby giving weapons against the development of multiresistant bacteria.

The PhD study was completed at Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Friday, 15th of October, 2021 at 13-16
Place: Auditorium G1, building 1532, room 116, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 118, 8000 Aarhus C
Title of PhD thesis: Understanding Microbial Defence Mechanisms
Contact information: René Lysdal Bærentsen, e-mail: rlb@mbg.au.dk, tel.: +45 25432351

Members of the assessment committee:
Professor Matthias Wilmanns, Centre for Structural Biology, EMBL Hamburg and University Medical Centre, Germany

Associate Professor Clare Kirkpatrick, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Associate Professor Ernst-Martin Füchtbauer, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Denmark

Main supervisor: Professor Ditlev Egeskov Brodersen, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Denmark

Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.
Due to the coronavirus situation, the PhD thesis will not be available for reading at the offices of the PhD administration. Instead, interested parties may send an e-mail to gradschool.nat@au.dk to receive a digital copy of the PhD thesis. Please note, it may in certain cases be necessary to make an individual arrangement to read the PhD thesis.