Nadya Abbood, PhD

Nadya earned her B.Sc. in Biology and M.Sc. in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. During her studies, she completed external research internships at the Technical University of Darmstadt and the Technical University of Berlin. In late 2019, she began her Ph.D. in the research group of Prof. Dr. Helge B. Bode at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg. Her research focused on reprogramming non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS) to generate novel synthetic non-ribosomal peptides (NRPs). She successfully developed a platform for the automated, high-throughput production of synthetic NRPs, which were analyzed for their biological activity. This included the use of a vibration-based encapsulation technique that enabled high-throughput screening of bacterial libraries by encapsulating individual bacterial cells within microcapsules. In the summer of 2023, Nadya completed her Ph.D. with highest honors and continued her work as a postdoctoral researcher in the same group. Since 2024, she is a DFG postdoctoral fellow in the research group of Prof. Dr. Jason M. Crawford, where she focuses on studying metabolic pathways at the host-bacteria interface.