Manuel Liebeke

Manuel Liebeke is a Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, where he heads the "Metabolic Interactions" research group. His work focuses on developing and applying advanced metabolomics techniques to understand microbial communities and host-microbe interactions in marine environments.

Dr. Liebeke's research interests span several interconnected fields:

• Metabolomics - studying metabolites as indicators of active metabolic pathways
• Spatial metabolomics - developing high-resolution imaging methods to map metabolites in microbial systems
• Host-microbe interactions - investigating metabolic exchanges between microbes and their hosts
• Marine microbiology - applying these techniques to understand ocean ecosystems
• Mass spectrometry imaging - pushing the boundaries of analytical techniques for microbial research

His laboratory develops innovative spatial imaging methods for in situ measurements of metabolites in host-microbe systems. Key approaches include:

• Spatial metabolomics on host-microbe systems using mass spectrometry imaging at the micrometer scale
• Correlative imaging approaches combining MALDI-MSI with FISH to map bacteria
• 3D scanning approaches like µCT to understand host anatomy
• Environmental metabolomics in marine systems, including seawater, tissue extracts, and sediment porewater
• Stable isotope tracer experiments to follow metabolic pathways in symbiotic systems

A significant finding from his research includes the discovery that sugars accumulate in the rhizosphere of seagrasses through metabolic interactions with plant phenolics. His vision is to transfer spatial metabolite data from single cells into multicellular and environmental contexts for a more comprehensive understanding of microbial ecosystems.