Volker Müller

Professor Müller is Head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Bioenergetics at Goethe University,Frankfurt. His research interest is the metabolism and biochemistry of anaerobic microorganisms with a focus on acetogenic bacteria. His group discovered how these bacteria make a living during autotrophic and heterotrophic growth, characterized the enzymes involved in bioenergetics, carbon and electron flow and redox homeostasis. His group established the use of acetogens to capture and store hydrogen as well as carbon dioxide. The lab also uses archaea to study the metabolic processes that allow microbial life under extreme energy limitation and that couple CO2fixation to ATP synthesis. He has directed an European-wide ERA-IB Network on industrial applications of acetogenic bacteria.He has co-authored close to300papers and was awarded in 2016 one of the prestigious Advanced Investigator Grantsof the European Research Council to work on “Acetogenic bacteria: from basic physiology viagene regulation to application in industrial biotechnology”.In 2022 he was awarded with a Reinhart-Koselleck project of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for his work on the role of cytochromes in actetogensand in 2023 he was elected as fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. For further information: www.mikrobiologie-frankfurt.de