The Rinke Lab: Environmental OMICS Group (E-OMICS)

Welcome to the Rinke Lab (team eOMICS)

The Rinke Lab/ team eOMICS is located at the Department of Microbiology, The University of Innsbruck, in Tirol, Austria 

View from the Solsteinhaus, a mountain hut located in the Nordkette mountain range (Austrian Alps) near Innsbruck, at an altitude of 1,806 meters (5,925 feet).

You will also find us at the Department website:  https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/microbiology/forschung/e-omics/ 

And can check out our latest publications here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vvJ25h0AAAAJ&hl=en

 

The Environmental Omics (eOMICS) team, integrates classical microbiological methods, such as microscopy and microbial enrichments, with cutting-edge DNA sequencing technologies to analyze genomes, transcripts, and proteins. By combining these approaches with advanced bioinformatics workflows, the team investigates the diversity, functions, and ecological roles of microbes in natural environments.

The group’s main research areas include the characterization of novel microbial taxa, such as members of the Patescibacteriota and DPANN lineages, and the discovery of bacteria capable of degrading synthetic polymers, including the most common plastic types. To identify these organisms, the team investigates diverse environments ranging from landfills and deep-sea sediments to the gut of polystyrene-eating superworms.

Another long-standing focus is the taxonomy and nomenclature of Bacteria and Archaea, supported through active involvement in the Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB) project (gtdb.ecogenomic.org).

Recent projects span a wide range of environmental microbiology topics, including

  • exploring plastic eating microbes in landfills

  • deciphering bacterial plastic degradation in the superworm model system

  • rhizosphere microbiome transplantation to restore degraded soils and enhance agricultural productivity

  • exploration of metal cycling in hydrothermal vents

  • characterizations of viral genomes from deep-sea sediments, and

  • the application of microbial biomineralization in design and architecture.


Superworm Plastic degradation Rinke Lab

If you are a motivated student, PhD candidate, or postdoc, interested in working with our team, please check out our Open Positions. Candidates with a focus on microbial genomics, microbial ecology, molecular biology, microfluidics, biotechnology, etc. are encouraged to apply.

If you are a student at the University of Innsbruck, interested in a Master Project, please use our contact form: contact us 

Choose a menu item to learn more about our team, research projects, publications, blogs, etc.

More information about the Department of Microbiology, University of Innsbruck can be found here:

https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/microbiology/ 

And here is the link to explore Innsbruck and Tyrol: It's great to be outdoors! https://www.innsbruck.info/en/