The final version of our article “Selenium respiration in anaerobic bacteria: Does energy generation pay off?” (here) published by Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry is online. Dr Staicu and prof. Larry Barton critically discuss the implications of anaerobic respiration based on selenium in phylogenetically-diverse bacteria.

This review article provides an in-depth analysis of selenium respiration (model selenium respiring bacteria, thermodynamics, respiratory enzymes, and genetic determinants), complemented by an extensive discussion about the evolutionary implications and the properties of biogenic Se⁰.

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Our team was active at the recent Goldschmidt2021 (Lyon, France – online format) conference contributing an oral presentation on the biogeochemistry of industrial effluents and a session on biominerals.

Talk:

Session 11d: “Reverse osmosis effluents: biogeochemical and mineralogical investigation”

https://2021.goldschmidt.info/goldschmidt/2021/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/3893

Session:

Session 10a: “(Bio)mineralisation: Geochemical, industrial, and engineering perspectives”

https://2021.goldschmidt.info/goldschmidt/2021/meetingapp.cgi/Symposium/204

Lyon, the luminous

Credit: https://www.airfrance.ro/travel-guide/lyon

Paulina Wojtowicz will do a research stage starting mid-May 2021 on biochemistry at Sapienza University of Rome with the team of Prof. Daniela de Biase (here).

Dr Staicu will spend April and May 2021 doing research on biomineralization with the team of Prof. Andreas Kappler at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (here).

Dr Lucian Staicu joined the FEMS Microbiology Ecology editorial board for a 5-year term (2021-2025).

https://academic.oup.com/femsec/pages/Editorial_Board

Date : Thursday 8th April 2021

Time: 10 am EDT / 3 pm BST / 16:00 CEST / 22:00 CST

The webminar will be chaired by Max Häggblom, Editor-in-Chief of FEMS Microbiology Ecology and will include four talks given by: John Stolz, Lucian Staicu, Valentine Cyriaque and Ronald (Ron) Oremland.

FEMS Microbiology Ecology Webinar on Microbes vs Metals

On Thursday, 25/02, at 9 AM (CET), Dr. Staicu will lecture on “Bioremediation and recovery of metals resulted from industrial activities” at Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada (Spain), hosted by Prof. Mohamed Merroun. You are cordially invited!

Link talk: https://meet.google.com/mxv-quuz-ysv

Presentation on University of Granada website:

https://masteres.ugr.es/microbiologia/pages/info_academica/seminarios/seminario_2020_2021

Dr. Staicu joined COST Action 19116 “Trace metal metabolism in plants”.

https://plantmetals.eu/plantmetals-home.html

“PLANTMETALS tackles basic and applied issues related to trace metal deficiency or excess levels in plant physiology and crop production by the combined expertise of physiologists, (bio)physicists, (bio)(geo)chemists, molecular geneticists, ecologists, agronomists and soil scientists. Knowledge will be translated to the needs of farmers and consumers, with inputs from companies.”

Dr. Staicu will give the seminar “Selenium biomineralization: the trade-offs of bacterial respiration” within the Bio-Geo-Colloquium series at the invitation of Dr. Dirk Merten.

26 January 2021, 5:15 PM (local time)

Dr. Staicu will give a talk on “Selenium biomineralization in bacteria: fundamentals and biotechnological applications” at the 16^th Winter School in Mineral Sciences organized by prof. Mihaly Posfai (University of Pannonia, Veszprem).

January 22 2021

Link here