Master’ and Bachelor’ thesis topics 2025

The effects of climate change on antibiotic resistance development in commercially relevant fish species

Dr. Hassan Humeida, Dr. Jutta Wiese, GEOMAR

The oceans contribute 20% of animal protein to human diets worldwide and are even involved in meeting 50% of protein needs in poor countries. Climate change is impacting not only marine organisms but also the microbiomes that live on or within them. At the same time, the demand for food from the sea is increasing globally along with annual human population growth worldwide. Marine food sources are not infinite and their biodiversity is threatened by various factors, including human pollution and overfishing.  The following Masters thesis performed within the WASCAL program seeks to screen for antibiotic resistant bacteria from commercially relevant fish species of the Cape Verde Islands. The impact of the stressors on fish health status will be determined by measuring anatomical, physiological and nutritional parameters, such as size, weight, organ intactness, among others. This Master’s thesis will be performed GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel.

We are offering a PhD Position: “Biodiscovery of novel extremozymes from marine deep-sea sponge microbiomes” (deadline Sept 30th, 2024)

The PhD thesis in the RU Marine Symbioses at GEOMAR will focus on large-scale bioinformatic analysis of deep-sea sponge metagenomes to discover novel enzymes from their cryptic microbiome. Machine learning algorithms will be developed and utilized to identify novel, biotechnologically relevant extremozymes and to unravel microbial community interactions within the sponge holobiont. The prospective candidate will heterologously express extremozymes in diverse expression hosts, verify their enzymatic activity and characterize the respective reaction parameters.

www.geomar.de/en/karriere/job-single-en/doktorandenstelle-m-w-d-biodiscovery-neuer-extremozyme-aus-dem-mikrobiom-von-tiefseeschwaemmen

Questions? Pls contact Dr. Erik Borchert (eborchert@geomar.de)