Project B5
The role of human microbiota for the development of fungal infectious diseases – Candida albicans as a case study
Project B5 investigates the role of human microbiota in the development of fungal infectious diseases. The main hypothesis is that the observed high rate of Candida albicans infections in patients undergoing chemotherapeutic or antibiotic treatment is highly interconnected with drug-induced imbalances of the intestinal ecosystem. B5 will determine the composition and functionality of bacteria and viruses from human and mouse gut and will examine how microbes influence the colonization of C. albicans. By high throughput sequencing, metagenome and metatranscriptome data from different time points before and after colonization/infection will be generated.
The new systemic view of the intertwined nature of C. albicans infections, drug administration and gut microbiota will be generated on the basis of the following aims:
- Analyzing the diversity and functionality of the gut microbiome and the contribution to C. albicans colonization and dissemination
- Characterization of RNAs from extracellular microvesicles
- Further developing the data-warehouse FungiNetDB for the analysis and storage of 16S rRNA, metagenomic, metatranscriptomic and virome data.

Prof. Dr. Manja Marz
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science Bioinformatics/High Throughput Analysis
Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Prof. Dr. Gianni Panagiotou
Department of Microbiome Dynamics
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Research Group Systems Biology and Bioinformatics
Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans-Knöll-Institute
Author | Year | Title | Journal | Links |
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Patumcharoenpol P, Nakphaichit M, Panagiotou G, Senavonge A, Suratannon N, Vongsangnak W | 2021 | MetGEMs Toolbox: Metagenome-scale models as integrative toolbox for uncovering metabolic functions and routes of human gut microbiome. | PLoS Computational Biology 17: e1008487 | PubMed |
Kang K, Imamovic L, Misiakou MA, Bornakke Sørensen M, Heshiki Y, Ni Y, Zheng T, Li J, Ellabaan MMH, Colomer-Lluch M, Rode AA, Bytzer P, Panagiotou G, Sommer MOA | 2021 | Expansion and persistence of antibiotic-specific resistance genes following antibiotic treatment. | Gut Microbes 13: 1-19 | PubMed |
Haange SB, Jehmlich N, Krügel U, Hintschich C, Wehrmann D, Hankir M, Seyfried F, Froment J, Hübschmann T, Müller S, Wissenbach DK, Kang K, Buettner C, Panagiotou G, Noll M, Rolle-Kampczyk U, Fenske W, von Bergen M | 2020 | Gastric bypass surgery in a rat model alters the community structure and functional composition of the intestinal microbiota independently of weight loss. | Microbiome 8: 13 | PubMed |
Çakır T, Panagiotou G, Uddin R, Durmuş S | 2020 | Novel approaches for Systems Biology of metabolism-oriented pathogen-human interactions: A mini-review. | Front Cell Infect Microbiol 10: 52 (Review) | Frontiers |
Heshiki Y, Vazquez-Uribe R, Li J, Ni Y, Quainoo S, Imamovic L, Li J, Sørensen M, Chow BKC, Weiss GJ, Xu A, Sommer MOA, Panagiotou G | 2020 | Predictable modulation of cancer treatment outcomes by the gut microbiota. | Microbiome 8: 28 | PubMed |
Blango MG, Pschibul A, Rivieccio F, Krüger T, Muhammad R, Jia L, Zheng T, Goldmann M, Voltersen V, Li Jun, Panagiotou G, Kniemeyer O, Brakhage AA | 2020 | Dynamic surface proteomes of allergenic fungal conidia. | J Proteome Res 19: 2092-104 | PubMed |
Dissanayake TK, Schäuble S, Mirhakkak M, Wu WL, Ng ACK, Yip CCY, López AG, Yeung ML, Chan KH, Yuen KY, Panagiotou G, To KKW | 2020 | Comparative transcriptomic analysis of Rhinovirus and Influenza virus infection. | Front Microbiol 11: 1580 | PubMed |
Seelbinder B, Chen J, Brunke S, Uribe RV, Meyer AC, de Oliveira Lino FS, Chan KF, Loos D, Imamovic L, Tsang CC, Lam RPK, Sridhar S, Kang K, Hube B, Woo PCY, Sommer MOA, Panagiotou G | 2020 | Antibiotics create a shift from mutualism to competition in human gut communities with a longer-lasting impact on fungi than bacteria. | Microbiome 8: 133 | Microbiome |
Seelbinder B, Wallstabe J, Marischen L, Weiss E, Wurster S, Page L, Löffler C, Bussemer L, Schmitt A, Wolf T, Becker J, Kalinke U, Vogel J, Panagiotou G, Einsele H, Westermann A, Schäuble S, Loeffler J | 2020 | RNA-seq reveals synergy in a human virus-fungus co-infection model. | Cell Rep 33: 108389 | PubMed |
Barber A, Riedel J, Sae-Ong T, Kang K, Brabetz W, Panagiotou G, Deising H, Kurzai O | 2020 | Effects of agricultural fungicide use on Aspergillus fumigatus abundance, antifungal susceptibility, and population structure. | mBio 11: e02213-20 | PubMed |
Mirhakkak MH, Schäuble S, Klassert TE, Brunke S, Brandt P, Loos D, Uribe RV, Senne de Oliveira Lino F, Ni Y, Vylkova S, Slevogt H, Hube B, Weiss GJ, Sommer MOA, Panagiotou G | 2020 | Metabolic modeling predicts specific gut bacteria as key determinants for Candida albicans colonization levels. | ISME J 15: 1257-70 | PubMed |
Liu Y, Wang Y, Ni Y, Cheung CKY, Lam KSL, Wang Y, Xia Z, Ye D, Guo J, Tse MA, Panagiotou G, Xu A | 2019 | Gut microbiome fermentation determines the efficacy of exercise for diabetes prevention. | Cell Metab 31: 77-91 | PubMed |
Kang K, Bergdahl B, Machado D, Dato L, Han TL, Li J, Villas-Boas S, Herrgård MJ, Förster J, Panagiotou G | 2019 | Linking genetic, metabolic and phenotypic diversity among S. cerevisiae strains using multi-omics associations. | Gigascience 8: giz015 | PubMed |
Li J, Rettedal EA, van der Helm E, Ellabaan M, Panagiotou G, Sommer MOA | 2019 | Antibiotic treatment drives the diversification of the human gut resistome | Genomics Proteomics Bioinformatics 17: 39-51 | PubMed |
Zheng T, Li J, Ni Y, Kang K, Misiakou MA, Imamovic L, Chow BKC, Rode AA, Bytzer P, Sommer M, Panagiotou P | 2019 | Mining, analyzing and integrating viral signals from metagenomic data. | Microbiome 7: 42 | PubMed |