The Sixt Lab (February 2023)
The Group Leader
Barbara Susanne Sixt
Assistant Professor, Group Leader
barbara.sixt@umu.se
+46-(0)90-785 25 95
Barbara is a passionate researcher with keen interest in the fields of host-pathogen interaction and cell-autonomous immunity. She was born and raised in Austria and completed both her diploma and PhD studies at the University of Vienna. Her PhD studies focused on the environmental chlamydiae, a group of obligate intracellular bacteria that infect a diverse range of host species, including even protozoa. After having lived almost 30 years in her home town, Barbara realized that there was a world outside. Moreover, she wanted to turn her focus to human pathogens and to look a bit closer at the molecular mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions. Therefore, she conducted several years of postdoctoral research abroad, first at Duke University in Durham (USA) and later at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif (close to Paris, France), to obtain insights into diverse techniques and approaches and to expand on hypotheses derived from her PhD work. Finally, in April 2018 she decided to move to an even more exotic place to build up her own lab in Umeå. Despite having left her home country many years ago, Barbara is quite patriotic and returns to Austria each year for a week of skiing in the gorgeous Alps.
Introducing MIMS-EMBL group leaders: Interview with Barbara Susanne Sixt
Introducing group leaders at Umeå University: Portrait of Barbara Susanne Sixt and her research
Current Group Members
Magnus Ölander
PostDoc (since Oct 1st 2019)
magnus.olander@umu.se
Magnus is a biotechnology engineer from the frozen north, where he grew up under skies full of northern lights. After a couple of interesting years in the pharmaceutical industry, he felt the call of academia and obtained a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences at Uppsala University. During his PhD project, he investigated proteomic and functional aspects of drug processing by human liver cells and learned to appreciate the beauty of condensing and visualizing large amounts of data. Feeling he was done with the poor weather conditions in southern Sweden, he returned northwards and joined the Sixt lab in October 2019. Magnus has a keen interest in drug discovery in general and antimicrobials in particular, which he is now applying to find new lines of attack against Chlamydia infection. When he is not thinking about ways to defeat bacteria, he likes to read books about the end of the world.
MIMS Spotlight Series: Interview with Magnus Ölander
Project: A multi-strategy approach to find new ways to treat Chlamydia
Mohammed Rizwan Babu Sait
PostDoc (since Dec 1st 2020)
mohammed.babu@umu.se
Mohammed Rizwan Babu Sait was born in Chennai, India, and completed his schooling and undergraduate studies in biotechnology there in his home town. He was awarded a Lund University Global excellence scholarship and moved to Sweden for his master studies in molecular biology and genetics at Lund University. After he obtained his MSc degree, Rizwan worked at the Department of Medical Microbiology at Skåne University hospital, Malmö, as a research technician with a focus on the bacterial pathogen Helicobacter pylori, which causes gastric cancer. He then moved to Germany for his PhD studies on characterizing the human respiratory pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. He loved his time in Sweden and so he decided to move back to Sweden for his postdoc in the Sixt lab in Umeå University. Here, he is now working on deciphering host cell death programs activated during infection with Chlamydia trachomatis mutants. Rizwan loves traveling, photography, cricket and cooking. He is a big fan of the Chennai Super Kings and the Harry Potter movie series.
Project: Molecular composition of a defensive host cell death program
Milica Milivojevic
PostDoc (since March 1st 2021)
milica.milivojevic@umu.se
Milica was born in Belgrade, Serbia but spent most of her life in the UK. It is there that she obtained her BSc in Biology from Imperial College London. She went to Paris for her Master’s and, having liked the French way of life (and bakeries), she decided to stay for her PhD. Since she was particularly interested in immunity and infectious Biology, her work focused on understanding the cell-autonomous immune response to the intracellular pathogen, Shigella flexneri. For her post-doc, she flew across the pond to New York where she was using an -omics approach to study the pathophysiology of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The next logical step was to come to Umeå where Milica is now hoping to combine what she has learnt by using proteomics and lipidomics to help elucidate the dynamics of the Chlamydia trachomatis inclusion during infection.
MIMS Spotlight Series: Interview with Milica Milivojevic
Gözde Türköz
PostDoc (since March 1st 2022)
Gözde was born in Mersin, Turkey, and did her bachelor in Biology with major in Fundamental and Industrial Microbiology at Ege University in Turkey. During her master degree at Mersin University in Turkey, she studied the chemotherapy resistance in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She then moved to Sweden for her PhD studies at Karolinska Institutet. In her PhD studies, she focused on discovering and characterizing novel factors that are essential for acute myeloid leukemia and for normal hematopoiesis. After her defense she moved back to Turkey to do a postdoc at Bogazici University focusing on the development of a vaccine and drugs for our battle against corona virus. However, she had enjoyed living in Sweden so much that she decided to come back and to join the Sixt group at Umeå University in March 2021. Her project is to investigate and characterize the factors and pathways that are important for the interaction of Chlamydia trachomatis with its host cells.
Projects: Identification of cellular defense programs with hidden protective potential
Aakriti Singh
PostDoc (since March 1st 2023)
aakriti.singh@umu.se
Aakriti Singh embarked on her academic journey by pursuing her bachlors and masters studies in the field of biotechnology and later diving into the fascinating world of nanocarriers during her doctoral research. At the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST) in Mohali, India, she meticulously crafted lipid-based nanocarriers for treating an infectious disease. Her journey unveiled a potent anti-leishmanial therapy, wherein these nanoformulations weren’t just effective; they were safe, stable, and cost-effective. There, she fine-tuned her research skills but craved new horizons and sought out the thrill of discovery. So, she packed her bags and set sail for Sweden, landing at Umeå University. This bold move wasn’t just about academic growth; it was a chance to explore new landscapes and embrace new cultures. Now, as a postdoc at the Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), she is focused on unravelling the mysteries surrounding antimicrobial agents battling elusive intracellular bacteria. Beyond the confines of the laboratory, Aakriti is a true explorer at heart. She seizes every opportunity to journey to new destinations, immersing herself in different landscapes and cultures. Her sweet tooth finds delight in savoring delectable treats from around the world, and the harmonious melodies of music provide solace and inspiration in her daily life.
Project: A multi-strategy approach to find new ways to treat Chlamydia
Karsten Meier
PhD student (since Nov 1st 2018)
Karsten was born in Germany and studied biochemistry in Hanover. In his master thesis Karsten worked with mouse mast cells and explored the effect of varying oxygen levels on their interaction with pathogens. During this time he also developed a particular interest in the interplay between host cells and pathogens. Moving north to Umeå for PhD studies was the next logical step for Karsten, because he had done an internship in Uppsala in 2016 and he had enjoyed living in Sweden so much that he could not wait to come back. Thus he joined the Sixt lab in November 2018. During his PhD studies, Karsten now tries to identify virulence factors that enable Chlamydia to evade the immune response of the host cell. Whenever there is time after a day in the lab, he likes to be active by going running or skiing or ice-skating on Tavelsjö.
MIMS Spotlight Series: Interview with Karsten Meier
Projects: Molecular action of the inclusion membrane protein CpoS, Identification of cellular defense programs with hidden protective potential, A multi-strategy discovery approach to find new ways to treat Chlamydia
Lana Hellga Jachmann
PhD student (since June 1st 2021)
Lana was born in Berlin, Germany and studied biochemistry in Greifswald. During her bachelor and master thesis, she focused on the research of the human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae. Thereby, she found novel hints to the function of one of its virulence factors, changing the way how its interaction value in adherence, during infection, can be seen. In parallel to her master thesis, she also worked on the project “KoInfekt” as a research assistant. Caught up in this topic, she joined the project after her master for 6 months, investigating parts of the cellular metabolism, the NLRP3 inflammasome and cell death during co-infections, of IAV and different bacteria. Due to her growing passion for research on bacterial influence and interactions on a cellular level, she joined the Sixt lab in June 2021. Here, she will determine the role of the inclusion in counteracting host cellular defense response and in regulating Chlamydia development.
MIMS Spotlight Series: Interview with Lana Jachmann
Project: Expanding the experimental toolkit for Chlamydia, Molecular action of the inclusion membrane protein CpoS
Former Group Members
Anastasiia Chaban (Project Assistant, Sept 2020-Feb 2021)
Samada Muraleedharan (PostDoc, Feb 2019-Jan 2020)
Former Project Students
Eduard Calpe (Bachelor Thesis Student, Feb-June 2023)
Daniel Rea (Master Thesis Student, Sept 2022-March 2023)
Aycan Öztekin (Project Student, Oct-Dec 2022)
Johanna Fredlund (Project Student, June-Aug 2022)
Leonie Zollmann (Project Student, June-Aug 2022)
Martyna Maria Ciagadlak (Bachelor Thesis Student, March-April 2022)
Lieke Mooij (Graduation Thesis Student, Jan-June 2022)
María Rayón Díaz (Project Student, May-Dec 2021)
Juliette Bieligk (Project Student, Sept-Nov 2021)
Emma Jousseaume (Project Student, April-June 2021)
Lucía Pérez Jiménez (Project Student, June-Nov 2020)
Partha Mohanty (Bachelor Thesis Student, Jan-June 2020)
Nelumika Panagoda (Bachelor Thesis Student, March-May 2020)
Celia Llorente (Bachelor Thesis Student, Jan-June 2019)
Pedro Dias (Project Student, Dec 2019-Jan 2020)
Sepideh Farmand Azadeh (Project Student, July-Aug 2019)