Malin Tiefensee

I am a PhD-student in the research group Anaerobic Microbial Biotechnology (AMB) at the Department of Molecular Sciences at SLU Uppsala. I have a background from Uppsala University where I studied molecular biotechnology engineering before I started my PhD studies in 2023. 

My research lies within the microbiology of the biogas process. I am studying the step where different bacteria and archaea cooperate in order to utilize different substrates to produce methane. This cooperative relationship is called syntrophy, and I am especially interested in degradation pathway intermediates and carbon cycling among the organisms. The overall project is an exploratory journey to pinpoint syntrophic requirements to optimize biomethane production systems. 

To do so, I am combining microbiology, analytical chemistry and bioinformatics to establish a foundation for new knowledge. The projects I am currently working on are:

1. Metagenome reconstruction and degradation dynamics of a syntrophic butyrate oxidising bacterium that is found in cooperation with a syntrophic acetate oxidizer and a hydrogenotrophic methanogen originating from a thermophilic biogas process. 
2. 13C-labelled acetate and formate supplementation to an acetate-oxidising thermophilic enrichment culture originating from a thermophilic biogas process. This project will determine the flow of the 13C atoms through NMR, DNA-SIP and extraction of intracellular metabolites. 
3. 13C-labelled propionate supplementation to mesophilic and/or thermophilic enrichment cultures. This study aims to determine the flow of the 13C atoms and to establish the cooperative behaviour of different syntrophic bacteria and methanogenic archaea and how it may differ over the time of degradation.
4. 15N-supplementation to enrichment cultures originating from biogas processes and how they react to ammonia inhibition.

I am currently teaching laboratory exercises within the Genetics, cell biology and microbiology courses BI1440 and BI1421 at bachelor level.