Simone Bachleitner

Simone Bachleitner is a Researcher at the Institute of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology within the Department of Biotechnology and Food Science at University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). Her work focuses on fungal genetics, epigenetic regulation, and metabolic engineering of yeast for organic acid production.

She actively investigates chromatin structure's role in secondary metabolite gene expression in Fusarium species and develops engineered Komagataella phaffii strains for bio-based acid production from methanol. Her research bridges molecular biology, industrial biotechnology, and plant pathology.

Recent publications highlight her contributions to:

• H3K27me3 epigenetic regulation in plant pathogens
• Mxr1/Mit1 transcriptional activation for lactic acid production
• Nonribosomal peptide synthetase cluster analysis in Fusarium
• Methanol-based itaconic acid bioprocess optimization

She supervises graduate students and contributes to collaborative projects funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and European Commission.