EESS talk on "Microbial enzymatic interactions with fluorinated contaminants "
Event details
| Date | 14.10.2025 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker | Dr. Serina L. Robinson, Eawag |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract:
The use of fluorinated compounds is widespread, with fluorine present in over 50% of agrochemicals and 25% of pharmaceuticals. Many of these substances persist in and contaminate the environment after their use. Despite the exceptional stability of the carbon-fluorine bond, microbial enzymes capable of transforming fluorinated compounds are known, and more are being discovered. However, accurately identifying these enzymes and their associated biotransformation pathways directly from microbiome sequencing data remains a challenge. This talk will focus on my group’s research identifying and engineering of microbial enzymes that interact with fluorinated compounds and training predictive models to learn molecular features driving these interactions. This aids future prediction of contaminant biotransformation potential from microbiome data and advances our understanding of microbial interactions with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Biography:
Serina L. Robinson is a group leader in the Department of Environmental Microbiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) where her group investigates how microbes contribute to the transformation of chemical contaminants in the environment. Previously, she was an ETH Zurich postdoctoral fellow advised by Prof. Dr. Jörn Piel. She obtained her PhD in Microbiology and MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA (advisor: Larry Wackett).
The use of fluorinated compounds is widespread, with fluorine present in over 50% of agrochemicals and 25% of pharmaceuticals. Many of these substances persist in and contaminate the environment after their use. Despite the exceptional stability of the carbon-fluorine bond, microbial enzymes capable of transforming fluorinated compounds are known, and more are being discovered. However, accurately identifying these enzymes and their associated biotransformation pathways directly from microbiome sequencing data remains a challenge. This talk will focus on my group’s research identifying and engineering of microbial enzymes that interact with fluorinated compounds and training predictive models to learn molecular features driving these interactions. This aids future prediction of contaminant biotransformation potential from microbiome data and advances our understanding of microbial interactions with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Biography:
Serina L. Robinson is a group leader in the Department of Environmental Microbiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) where her group investigates how microbes contribute to the transformation of chemical contaminants in the environment. Previously, she was an ETH Zurich postdoctoral fellow advised by Prof. Dr. Jörn Piel. She obtained her PhD in Microbiology and MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA (advisor: Larry Wackett).
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Wenyu Gu, MICROBE