Prof. Dr. Barbara Di Ventura

CV

Barbara di Ventura gained a degree in Computer Science from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” after which she obtained a Ph.D. in molecular biology at the EMBL in Heidelberg, working in the laboratory of Luis Serrano, a pioneer of the field of synthetic biology. She did her postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Victor Sourjik, at the Center for Molecular Biology in Heidelberg (ZMBH), investigating the bacterial Min system with experiments and mathematical modeling. After a brief period as visiting scientist in the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, she went back to Heidelberg where, in 2011, she became the leader of the “Molecular and Cellular Engineering group” at the BioQuant center. In September 2017, her group moved to the University of Freiburg, where Barbara is now full professor. Her team is interested in understanding the mechanisms used by cells to control processes in space and time using an interdisciplinary approach that combines molecular and cellular biology with synthetic biology and mathematical modeling. A special focus of the lab is optogenetics, that is, the use of light to externally control protein function and localization in individual living cells.

Confirming her passion for synthetic biology, Barbara has been the supervisor of many iGEM teams in Heidelberg and Freiburg (iGEM stands for international Genetically Engineered Machine; the iGEM competition is the most renowned world-wide competition in synthetic biology).

Barbara is also the chair of the advisory board of the German Association for Synthetic Biology (GASB), she is one of the members of the board of the bioengineering and bioprocessing division of the European Federation of Biotechnology as well as of the European Synthetic Biology Society (EUSynBioS).

Barbara is a professor at the Centre for Biological Signalling Studies in Freiburg (BIOSS) and is part of the Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies (CIBSS), the Excellence Cluster of the University of Freiburg. In 2020, she obtained an ERC Consolidator grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to develop a novel targeted cancer therapy using synthetic biology approaches.

Selected Publications

Analysis of slow-cycling variants of the light-inducible nuclear protein export system LEXY in mammalian cells
G. Forlani, E. B. Antwi, D. Weis, M. A. Öztürk, B. A. W. Queck, D. Brecht, B. Di Ventura
ACS Synthetic Biology, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.2c00232

Synthetic microbiology applications powered by light
D. Mazraeh, B. Di Ventura
Current Opinion in Microbiology, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2022.102158

Requirements for mammalian promoters to decode transcription factor dynamics
E. B. Antwi, Y. Marrakchi, Ö. Cicek, T. Brox, B. Di Ventura
bioRxiv, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.12.464037

Engineering AraC to make it responsive to light instead of arabinose
E. Romano, A. Baumschlager, E. B. Akmeriç, N. Palanisamy, M. Houmani, G. Schmidt, M. A. Öztürk, L. Ernst, M. Khammash and B. Di Ventura
Nature Chemical Biology, 2021
doi:10.1101/2020.07.14.202911

Split intein-mediated selection of cells containing two plasmids using a single antibiotic
N. Palanisamy, A. Degen, A. Morath, J. Ballestin Ballestin, C. Juraske, M. A. Öztürk, G. A. Sprenger, J. W. Youn, W. W. Schamel and B. Di Ventura
Nature Communications, 2019
doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12911-1

Optogenetic control of nuclear protein export
D. Niopek, P. Wehler, J. Roensch, R. Eils and B. Di Ventura
Nature Communications, 2016
doi:10.1038/ncomms10624

Backbone circularization of Bacillus subtilis family 11 xylanase increases its thermostability and its resistance against aggregation
M. C. Waldhauer, S. N. Schmitz, C. Ahlmann-Eltze, J. G. Gleixner, C. C. Schmelas, A. G. Huhn, C. Bunne, M. Buscher, M. Horn, N. Klughammer,J. Kreft, E. Schafer, P. A. Bayer, S. G. Kramer, J. Neugebauer, P. Wehler, M. P. Mayer, R. Eils and B. Di Ventura
Molecular BioSystems, 2015
doi:10.1039/c5mb00341e

Engineering light-inducible nuclear localization signals for precise spatiotemporal control of protein dynamics in living cells
D. Niopek, D. Benzinger, J. Roensch, T. Draebing, P. Wehler, R. Eils and B. Di Ventura
Nature Communications, 2014
doi:10.1038/ncomms5404