Dr. Maike Otto

Maike Otto joined the Bioprocess Technology Laboratory in September 2022, contributing her expertise in molecular biology, microbiology, upstream processing and (online) analytics. She also supports the scientific communication of the group, including writing research grant proposals and publications.

Maike holds a master’s degree in Molecular and Applied Biotechnology from RWTH Aachen, Germany. She earned her PhD through a collaboration between the laboratories of Prof. Nick Wierckx at the Jülich Research Center and Prof. Lars Blank at RWTH Aachen. Her dissertation “Microbial catalysis of renewable resources into aromatics via the central metabolic precursor phenylalanine” describes the metabolic engineering of bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas for sustainable production of aromatic chemicals.

During her time as postdoc at ETH Zürich in the lab of Prof. Sven Panke, she expanded her knowledge in the field of microbial strain engineering and upstream processing for the synthesis of various chemical compounds from renewable substrates. Afterwards, Maike gained deeper insights into scientific communications by working as a writer for a medical communications agency.