Welcome Prof. Gurvan Michel from the CNRS Station Biologique de Roscoff in Brittany, France, to a sabbatical year with us

Today, Prof. Dr. Gurvan Michel from the CNRS research centre on marine biology, the famous “Station Biologique de Roscoff” in Brittany, France, arrived in our lab for a one year sabbatical stay. Prof. Michel is co-leader of the Marine Glycobiology group there, together with Prof. Mirjam Czjzek, with whom we collaborated in the European research project PolyModE on polysaccharide modifying enzymes. He is an expert on enzymes involved in biodegrading algal cell walls, identifying them from suitable bacterial genomes, heterologously expressing them and characterizing them in structural and functional detail, and using them for the production of potentially bioactive oligosaccharides from marine algae, and for the fingerprinting analyses of the algal polysaccharides. Clearly, his interests are very similar to ours - elucidating structure/function relationships of functional biopolymers - and our areas of expertise are mutually complementing. While with us, he intends to pursue his own research project with our support, and to support our research projects with his expertise. We are sure that in the long run, we will be able to build a strong French-German network in marine glycobiology that will make our research more efficient, help us in acquiring research funds, and allow our students to profit from the expertise and infrastructure of both sites. As a very welcome gift from beautiful Brittany, Gurvan and his family - his wife Corinne and their three-year old sun Judikael - brought a little rain when they arrived in Muenster yesterday. We hope and trust you will enjoy life and work here, and we are looking forward to an exciting time. Welcome again!