James Saenz, Ph.D
James Saenz is a group leader at the B CUBE Center for Molecular Bioengineering at TU Dresden. His
career has taken several turns, which have been motivated by a passion for understanding how life
works and how the co-evolution of life and Earth has led to modern cells. He completed his PhD in
chemical oceanography at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution under the guidance of
Professors Timothy Eglinton and Roger Summons. There, he was introduced to the use of lipids as
molecular fossils to reconstruct the history of life. James then moved to Dresden for a postdoctoral
fellowship in Professor Kai Simons’ lab at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and
Genetics (MPI-CBG), where he investigated the evolution of membrane organization prior to the
advent of sterols. Currently James’ lab B CUBE Center for Molecular Bioengineering is developing
minimal model systems to study the role of lipid complexity in membrane function and exploring
how lipid-RNA interactions can be engineered for bioregulation in synthetic systems and their
implications for the origin of life.
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From Genomically Minimal Bacteria to an RNA-Lipid World
MAR 18 14:50 - 16:30
Photochemistry lecture room Viničná 7
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Do not forget to check the rest of our Seminar Series schedule for other exciting lectures!