Mag. Nika Pende, MSc, PhD

Room 3.030
1030 Wien, Djerassiplatz 1
T: +43-4277-76527
E: nika.pende@univie.ac.at

Co-founder and Trustee of The Society for Archaeal Biology

Research focus

My main research focus is prokaryotic cell biology, the cellular adaptations to various lifestyles and the evolutionary history of prokaryotes. I am studying the mechanisms underlying cell growth, division and. Chromosome biology of methanogenic archaea with a cell wall through a combination of experimental and bioinformatical approaches.

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae - Appointments / Career

2022 - present		Independent Postdoc at the University of Vienna, in the group Archaea Physiology & Biotechnology.
2018 - 2022		Postdoc at the Institut Pasteur Paris, France in the lab of Prof. Simonetta Gribaldo.
2019		MSc in Zoology, University of Vienna, in the group of Ao. Prof. Dr. S. Bulgheresi. (Note: this study was started before the PhD study and the thesis was defended during the Postdoc at the Institut Pasteur Paris)
2017		Ph.D. in Biology, with distinction, University of Vienna, in the group of Ao. Prof. Dr. S. Bulgheresi.

Awards and Grants

2024		FFG Small Project (18 months, Co-PI)
2021		Appointed FWF Elise Richter fellow (36 months, PI)
2021		Groot-21: a Microbiology Collaborative Seed Grant from the Institut Pasteur, Paris. (10k €)
2019		Appointed Institut Pasteur Pasteur-Roux fellow (24 months)
2016		PhD completion grant from the University of Vienna, Austria (6 months)
2016		International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME16) Student Poster Award
2014		“Rupert-Riedl-Preis zur Förderung der Meeresforschung in Österreich” (4k €)

Ongoing projects

Cell Division Dynamics in cell-walled Archaea

HT enzyme screening

Publications

Baquero DP, Medvedeva S, Martin-Gallausiaux C, Pende N, Sartori-Rupp A, Tachon S et al. Stable coexistence between an archaeal virus and the dominant methanogen of the human gut. Nature Communications. 2024 Sep 4;15(1):7702. 7702. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-51946-x

Weber PM, Paredes GF, Viehboeck T , Pende N, Volland JM, Gros O et al. FtsZ-mediated fission of a cuboid bacterial symbiont. Iscience. 2022 Jan 21;25(1):103552. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103552

Pende N, Sogues A. SepF and FtsZ - an ancient love story. 2021.

Pende N, Sogues A, Megrian D, Sartori-Rupp A, England P, Palabikyan H et al. SepF is the FtsZ anchor in archaea, with features of an ancestral cell division system. Nature Communications. 2021 Jun 4;12(1):3214. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23099-8

Pende M, Becker K, Wanis M, Saghafi S, Kaur R, Hahn C et al. High-resolution ultramicroscopy of the developing and adult nervous system in optically cleared Drosophila melanogaster. Nature Communications. 2018 Nov 9;9(1):4731. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07192-z

Pende N, Wang J, Weber PM, Verheul J, Kuru E, Rittmann SKMR et al. Host-Polarized Cell Growth in Animal Symbionts. Current Biology. 2018 Apr 2;28(7):1039-1051.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.02.028

Leisch N, Pende N, Weber PM, Gruber-Vodicka HR, Verheul J, Vischer NOE et al. Asynchronous division by non-ring FtsZ in the gammaproteobacterial symbiont of Robbea hypermnestra. Nature Microbiology. 2016 Okt 10;2:16182. doi: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.182

Pende N, Leisch N, Gruber-Vodicka HR, Heindl NR, Ott J, den Blaauwen T et al. Size-independent symmetric division in extraordinarily long cells. Nature Communications. 2014 Sep 15;5:4803. doi: 10.1038/ncomms5803