Vilhelmiina Haavisto

Marine microbial communities are responsible for a large part of the carbon cycling that occurs in our oceans. In these communities, specialized bacteria degrade complex polysaccharides, providing a source of carbon and other nutrients to themselves and others. However, these communities are complex and difficult to study in their natural environment, meaning that to understand how they function we must develop simplified, lab-based analogs.

I joined the Sauer group as a PhD student in January 2023, after completing a semester project and Master's thesis here during my MSc at ETH. In my PhD project, I aim to develop minimal chitin-degrading communities to investigate the roles of different bacteria in the breakdown of this complex polysaccharide, and how nutrients flow through the community. My project is grounded in microbial ecology, with a focus on understanding the molecular mechanisms that underpin interactions between members of these chitin-degrading communities. In my PhD, I work as a part of a larger collaboration called external page PriME (Principles of Microbial Ecosystems), with participating research groups from Germany and the USA.