THE RATZKE LAB...

...aims to understand microbial communities with a combination of lab experiments and mathematical modeling. Microbes are all around us and even live in large numbers on and in our bodies where they directly impact our health and well-being. Although microbial communities are such an essential part of our lives, we know very little about how they function. Our lab aims to gain a deeper general understanding of microbial communities, especially how interactions between microbes shape the overall communities and determine their functions. We believe a better understanding of microbial communities allows us to develop new ways of treating a variety of diseases.

THE RATZKE LAB...

NEWS

February, 2024: Welcome Elena! Elena joined us for her Bachelor's thesis to study collaboration in microbes.

December, 2023: Christmas came slightly early for us this year. We received a grant from the Volkswagen foundation to investigate the role of "unculturable" microbes in communities.

October, 2023: Welcome Sylvia! Sylvia is a Master student in our group and will setup a method to scan microbes in very high-throughput.

September, 2023: Welcome Veronika! Veronika joined us as an Erasmus Intern to explore how social microbes are.

news archive

RECENT SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

C. Ratzke*, J. Barrere*, J. Gore
"Strength of species interactions determines biodiversity and stability in microbial communities"
Nature Ecology and Evolution 4, 376–383 (2020)

D. Amor, C. Ratzke, J. Gore
"Transient invaders can induce shifts between alternative stable states of microbial communities"
Science Advances, Vol. 6, no. 8 (2020)

C. Ratzke*, J.Denk*, J.Gore
"Ecological suicide in microbes"
Nature Ecology and Evolution 2, 867–872 (2018)

C. Ratzke, J. Gore
“Modifying and reacting to the environmental pH can drive bacterial interactions”
PLOS Biology 16(3): e2004248 (2018)

C. Ratzke, J.Gore
“Self-organized patchiness facilitates survival in a cooperatively growing Bacillus subtilis population”
Nature Microbiology, Article number: 16022 (2016)