Nicole Dubilier

Nicole Dubilier serves as Director of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, and leads the Department of Symbiosis. Her research focuses on the biology and ecology of tight associations between bacteria and eukaryotes, with particular emphasis on marine invertebrates from chemosynthetic environments such as sulfide-rich coastal sediments, hydrothermal vents, and seeps, as well as shallow-water coral reefs and seagrass meadows.

Dubilier earned her PhD in Marine Zoology from the University of Hamburg after moving to Germany from the USA as a teenager. Following a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, she joined the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in 1997, where she has since established an internationally recognized research program in marine symbiosis.

Her interdisciplinary research program employs a wide range of methodologies from deep-sea in situ tools to molecular, 'omic', and imaging analyses to understand the diversity, ecology, and evolution of chemosynthetic symbioses. She has made significant contributions to our understanding of how gutless marine worms, deep-sea mussels, and other invertebrates form nutritional partnerships with bacterial symbionts in extreme environments. Her work bridges molecular mechanisms with ecosystem-level impacts, revealing how these symbiotic relationships influence global biogeochemical cycles.

Analysis of Dubilier's recent publications shows a strong focus on genomic and proteomic characterization of symbiotic relationships, evolutionary history of host-symbiont associations, and the metabolic mechanisms enabling symbiosis in extreme environments. Her research increasingly integrates single-cell analyses, metabolic modeling, and spatial metabolomics to uncover intricate biochemical pathways that sustain these partnerships, with particular attention to carbon fixation, sulfur metabolism, and horizontal gene transfer.

• ASM DC White Award for Interdisciplinary Research (2024) - recognizing both scientific achievements in interdisciplinary research and exceptional mentoring of young scientific talent

As Director of the Max Planck Institute, Dubilier oversees multiple research departments and groups comprising over 200 employees from more than 30 countries. She actively participates in numerous national and international advisory boards and scientific councils, and is deeply committed to advancing gender equity in science. Her leadership has positioned the institute as a global hub for marine microbiology research, with strong collaborations across continents and with major oceanographic institutions.

The Department of Symbiosis operates state-of-the-art laboratories for molecular and microscopic analyses of marine symbioses and maintains strong partnerships with international research vessels for deep-sea exploration. Current projects focus on the genomic basis of symbiotic relationships, metabolic interactions between hosts and symbionts, evolutionary history of symbiotic partnerships, and the impacts of environmental change on these delicate relationships.