News and Recent Developments
Tim wins Start-Up Award
11.07.2024: We are happy to share that Tim was awarded the TBG start-up award for his proposed company "Atrax Biologics". Our labs start-up is going to transform spider venoms into eco-friendly inescticides and to revolutionise agriculture.
A visit from Australia
06.07.2024: Our long term academic partner Prof. Dr. Volker Herzig, well-known for his spider venom research, joined us for our annual summer party. We had great discussions about future projects over a few drinks and plenty of cool ideas were born tonight!
Farewell Otter!
05.07.2024: After seven weeks we said goodbye to our Australian guest researcher Otter. Otter is looking into venom based insecticides and stayed here to learn new methods and to get a bit international exposure under her belt. Bye Otter!
Antonia finishes B.Sc
20.06.2024: Today our amazing student Antonia, supervised by Tim and Ludwig, defended her excellent work on antimicrobial spider peptides and graduated B.Sc with flying colors. Great job Toni, we are very proud of you!
Showing-off at IST 2024 in Singapore
25.05.2024: Tim and Lennart attended the 2024 World Congress of the International Society on Toxinology and Singapore. They presented the labs work in multiple talks, posters, networking sessions and social events.
2023 Commenced
15.12.2023: Christmas holiday is at the doors and the Lüddecke lab concludes this amazing year with a wild Christmas party. Thanks to everyone who helped making 2023 such a great success. Here is to an equally amazing 2024!
Lüddecke lab PhDs rocking IME Retreat
16.11.2023: This week, the PhD students were out to present their venom work to fellow Fraunhofer IME PhD students at the first PhD retreat in Aachen. Lennart, Ludwig and Josi presented amazing posters and talks on their projects and got their peers very excited for our work. Great job everyone!
Our first PhD graduation!
13.11.2023: With great pleasure we announce that our very own Sabine Hurka successfully passed her PhD defence. Sabine worked on biodiscovery from ant venoms for biomedical applications and presented a wonderful thesis. Congratulations Dr. Hurka!
A Farewell to Ivonne
31.10.2023: Today we said goodbye to our Costa Rican masters student Ivonne Rodriguez. Ivonne worked relentlessly on the biotechnological production of spider venom enzymes and did a great job. Thanks for your stay Ivonne!
Lilien obtains her Bachelors degree
19.09.2023: Happy to share, that with my amazing student Lilien Uhrig my group today produced its first bachelor-alumnus! Lili investigated aspects of the venom profile and activity of German viper venoms. Many congratulations Lili!
A visitor from Singapore
07.09.2023: We were happy to have Prof. Dr. Manjunatha Kini from Singapore this week. Kini is a living legend and stays behind the discovery of several toxin families. We enjoyed the many fruitful discussion and look forward to strengthen our collaboration in the future.
Dr. Markus Monzel visits Lüddecke Lab
04.08.2023: Today we were visited by Dr. Markus Monzel, president of the German Society for Herpetology and Herpetoculture. In a fruitful meeting, we set the foundation for joint projects and close future collaborations particularly revolving around snake venom.
A joint lab retreat
16.07.2023: As a social summer highlight our team met the lab of Dr. Dorothee Tegtmeier for a joint lab retreat. Together, we spent an amazing sunny day in Frankfurt, including a tour to the Senckenberg museum and a traditional German beer and dinner experience on the Main river.
Tim attended the 72nd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
25.06.2023: Tim was selcted to attend the world-famous Lindau Nobel Laureate meetings. In a stimulating environment these meetings bring together Nobel laureates and the leading upcoming researchers of each generation for scientific exchange.
Tim invited to "Tiere in der Medizin" conference
31.03.2023: Tim was invited to present our venom research at this interdisciplinary conference - connecting biologists, vets, physicians, historians and philosophers- in Greifswald, Germany.
Lennart defends his Thesis
06.03.2023: Today, Lennart Schulte defended his excellent masters project on venom proteomics from blunt-nosed vipers (Macrovipera spp.). Congratulations Lennart!
Masters degree for Hanna
15.02.2023: Our brilliant student Hanna Dambeck today defended her thesis on the establishment of a heterologous expression system for production of cysteine-rich ant venom toxins. Many congratulations Hanna, we are very proud of you!
The lab at IST world congress 2022
16.-20.10.2022: The largest meeting on animal venom, the IST world congress is happening in Abu Dhabi and our lab attended! Tim was present as invited speaker and section chair for the ECR sessions. Anne presented a poster and was part of the committee scoring ECR talks to find the best student presentation.
Ludwig turns master of science
14.10.2022: Stoked to announce that Ludwig Dersch defended his amazing masters project on the bioactivity of Wolf spider venom peptides. Incredibly happy for that as this was officially the first completed thesis from our group. Many congrats Ludwig!
Tim presenting at Senckenberg
24.09.2022: Every year, the Senckenberg museum Frankfurt holds the "Arachnologisches Treffen", organised by Dr. Peter Jäger. It connects scientists with the citizens of Frankfurt and showcases spiders to the public. This year, Tim was invited to present our work on how spider venom could turn into medicine.
Lüddecke lab invades INSECTA 2022
14-16.09.2022: This month the INSECTA 2022 was held at the JLU Gießen and consequently, the Lüddecke lab attended with several members. Specifically, Tim presented our work on spider venoms and Anne had a poster on venom biotechnology. We are especially proud of Sabine, who held her first oral conference presentation and gave a beautiful outline on her ant venom research. Well done Sabine!