Instanz: TeilenTeilen:New Bacterial Genus Brakhagea described21.07.2026 15:03A team from the Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse” at Friedrich Schiller University Jena has described a new bacterial genus and named it after Prof. Axel Brakhage, the scientific director of the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI). The four newly classified species of the genus Brakhagea originate from aquatic habitats in northern Germany. Using modern genome sequencing and phylogenetic analyses, the researchers were able to show that four of these bacterial strains represent previously unknown species that together form the new genus Brakhagea. This new genus belongs to the Planctomycetes, a relatively understudied group of bacteria with unusual cell biology. Brakhage is a professor at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the scientific director of the Leibniz-HKI.