Nicole Dubilier

Nicole Dubilieris a marinemicrobiologistand director of the Symbiosis Department at theMax Planck Institute for Marine Microbiologysince 2013 and a Professor of Microbial Symbioses at theUniversity of Bremen.She is a pioneer in ecological and evolutionarysymbioticrelationships between sea animals and their microbial partners inhabiting environments that harbour low nutrient concentrations.She was responsible for the discovery of a new form of symbiosis between two kinds of bacteria and the marine oligochaeteOlavius algarvensis.

Early life

Born inNew York Cityto an American industrialist father and German immigrant mother, Nicole Dubilier initially focused onballet.In 1970, she was accepted into theStuttgart Balletcompany after childhood success with theThe Royal BalletalongsideRudolf Nureyev.Due to her parents' divorce earlier that year, Dubilier declined the offer to remain with her mother and three younger brothers inWiesbaden,Germany.Initially intending to join the Hessian State Ballet, Dubilier ultimately chose to quit ballet and continue her education. She decided to pursuemarine biologybased on her experiences visiting her father each summer inFire Island Pines, New York.

Career

In 1985, Dubilier obtained her degree in Zoology, Biochemistry and Microbiology and completed her Ph.D. in marine biology at theUniversity of Hamburgwith Olav Giere in 1992. During her graduate studies, she found herself dispassionate about her research, often wanting to quit, but her persistence propelled her to the finishline. In 1992, motivated to re-discover the excitement of her field, Dubilier attended a molecular biology summer course taught byDonald ManahanatUniversity of Southern California.Later, from 1993–1995, she experienced her first Post-doc with the guidance ofColleen Cavanaughonhydrothermal ventschemosynthetic life forms. Two years later, she started her career at theMax Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology(MPI-MM), first as a Postdoc studying the Evolution of bacterial symbiosis in gutless worms (1997–2001) and afterwards as the Coordinator of the MPI-MM International Research Program (2002–2017), Head of the Symbiosis Laboratory (2001–2017) and the Head of the Symbiosis Department (since 2013).Dubilier has continued her work on symbiotic relationships within chemosynthetic living organisms, expanding her exploration of both shallow and deep-sea environments, ranging fromseagrassto coastal sediments, through meta-omic approaches,e.g.metaproteomicsandmetagenomics.Her primary animal models constitute ofshrimp,gutless-worms,nematodes,andciliates.

Awards and honors

• 2009 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) Applied and Environmental Microbiology Chapter
• 2013 Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Marine Microbiology Initiative Award
• 2014 German Research Foundation Gottfried WilhelmLeibniz Prize
• 2017 Co-ChairAmerican Society for MicrobiologyMicrobe Conference
• 2018 Elected member ofEuropean Molecular Biology Organization
• 2019 Plymouth Marine Science Medal Lecture
• 2020 Excellence Professor Award of the Petersen Foundation
• Since 2013 Elected member at theAmerican Academy of Microbiology
• Since 2020 President of the International Society of Microbial Ecology

Selected publications

• Dubilier, Nicole; McFall-Ngai, Margaret; Zhao, Liping (29 October 2015)."Microbiology: Create a global microbiome effort".Nature News.526(7575): 631–634.Bibcode:2015Natur.526..631D.doi:10.1038/526631a.PMID26511562.
• McFall-Ngai, Margaret; Hadfield, Michael G.; Bosch, Thomas C. G.; Carey, Hannah V.; Domazet-Lošo, Tomislav; Douglas, Angela E.; Dubilier, Nicole; Eberl, Gerard; Fukami, Tadashi; Gilbert, Scott F.; Hentschel, Ute; King, Nicole; Kjelleberg, Staffan; Knoll, Andrew H.; Kremer, Natacha; Mazmanian, Sarkis K.; Metcalf, Jessica L.; Nealson, Kenneth; Pierce, Naomi E.; Rawls, John F.; Reid, Ann; Ruby, Edward G.; Rumpho, Mary; Sanders, Jon G.; Tautz, Diethard; Wernegreen, Jennifer J. (7 February 2013)."Animals in a bacterial world, a new imperative for the life sciences".Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.110(9): 3229–3236.Bibcode:2013PNAS..110.3229M.doi:10.1073/pnas.1218525110.ISSN0027-8424.PMC3587249.PMID23391737.
• Dubilier, Nicole; Bergin, Claudia; Lott, Christian (2008). "Symbiotic diversity in marine animals: the art of harnessing chemosynthesis".Nature Reviews Microbiology.6(10). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 725–740.doi:10.1038/nrmicro1992.ISSN1740-1526.PMID18794911.S2CID3622420.
• Woyke, Tanja; Teeling, Hanno; Ivanova, Natalia N.; Huntemann, Marcel; Richter, Michael; Gloeckner, Frank Oliver; Boffelli, Dario; Anderson, Iain J.; Barry, Kerrie W.; Shapiro, Harris J.; Szeto, Ernest; Kyrpides, Nikos C.; Mussmann, Marc; Amann, Rudolf; Bergin, Claudia; Ruehland, Caroline; Rubin, Edward M.; Dubilier, Nicole (17 September 2006)."Symbiosis insights through metagenomic analysis of a microbial consortium".Nature.443(7114). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 950–955.Bibcode:2006Natur.443..950W.doi:10.1038/nature05192.ISSN0028-0836.PMID16980956.S2CID140106758.
• Dubilier, Nicole; Mülders, Caroline; Ferdelman, Tim; de Beer, Dirk; Pernthaler, Annelie; Klein, Michael; Wagner, Michael; Erséus, Christer; Thiermann, Frank; Krieger, Jens; Giere, Olav; Amann, Rudolf (1 May 2001). "Endosymbiotic sulphate-reducing and sulphide-oxidizing bacteria in an oligochaete worm".Nature.411(6835). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 298–302.Bibcode:2001Natur.411..298D.doi:10.1038/35077067.ISSN0028-0836.PMID11357130.S2CID4420931.

External links

• Nicole Dubilierpublications indexed byGoogle Scholar