Katja Bettenbrock

Dr. Katja Bettenbrock is a Team Leader in the Experimental Systems Biology group at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems (Magdeburg, Germany). Her research focuses on understanding bacterial metabolism and its regulatory systems to enable biotechnological applications, particularly in strain development for chemical production.

Education:

• Diploma in biology from the University of Osnabrück (1993), thesis on PTS-dependent chemotaxis in Escherichia coli
• Doctorate at the University of Osnabrück (1997), studying D-galactose degradation pathways in Lactobacillus casei

Her research spans systems biology, regulatory network analysis, and metabolic engineering in bacteria like Escherichia coli and Zymomonas mobilis, with applications in biofilm regulation, ATP turnover control, and synthetic microbial communities. Articles highlight interdisciplinary approaches combining experimental biology with kinetic and computational models.

Labs & Teams: She leads the Experimental Systems Biology team, collaborating on bioprocess optimization and cybergenetic control frameworks for industrial microbiology.