Miint being unstoppable at The Movement (2025-12-09)

We wrapped up the year with two hours of flying in the air. Two worlds are coming together today: the world of scientific inquiry and the world of artistic expression. Both require courage, trust, and a willingness to step into the unknown. I am proud of this team for their openness, their strength, and for making space for joy and connection alongside science.

Here’s to closing the year with movement, community, and a little bit of magic.

The story behind the story of our 204 model communities publication (2025-12-08)

Some stories need their own time to be written. Some stories need their own time to be conceived and told. And while our story is finally published in Communications Biology, there were years of thought and “drama” behind it.
Link to the story behind the story here

Spiekeroog group retreat 2025

Today (2025-08-22), the research group came back from a short retreat at Spiekeroog.

We had cool scientific and academic discussions and lots of fun playing games and hanging out at the beach. We also took the 6th Miint group photo.

Microbiologist with a passion for diversity

Today (2024-01-07), Zukunft Niedersachsen released a portrait of Sarahi Garcia, highlighting the research focus of the group in a really cool video.

“We think far too simplistically about diversity,’ she warns. This is also due to the fact that individual species of bacteria are usually observed in isolation and under highly simplified laboratory conditions. ‘But nature is enormously complex … Many bacteria or bacterial species cannot survive on their own, explains Garcia … instead, they complement each other at the level of basic needs.’ Diversity and interaction create community resilience.

Miint learning about symbiosis in the forest

Today (2024-09-30) was our first lab retreat in Oldenburg. We spent the day walking in a local forest and picking up edible fungi. Mathias kindly guided us in the task and taught us that each mushroom lives near its tree host in symbiosis.

The day was fresh, and the sun was shining through some moving clouds. The fungi were delicious. A delicious symbiosis!

Miint in Cape Town #ISME19

Today (2024-08-23) was our last day celebrating science at #ISME19. As a group, we presented a total of seven posters, one oral presentation, and had the honor to speak on the panel for Diversity in STEM.

To all of those trailblazers, walking a path into science: let’s build a community that is a support system so we can do the most creative science and live fulfilling lives

5th Miint group photo and social

Today (2024-06-22) we had our fifth Miint group photo in the frame of a midsummer celebration.

4th Miint group photo

Today (2023-10-05) we had our fourth Miint group photo in the frame of a mini-symposium where all students in the group presented and discussed their research.

Miint moves to Oldenburg University

Today (2023-07-31) the president of the Oldenburg University, Prof. Dr. Ralph Bruder, welcomed us in Oldenburg Universiy. We will start research and teaching as the Pelagic Microbiology research group.

3rd Miint group photo

Today (2022-08-09) we had our third Miint group photo and outdoor lunch

Farewell to Julia, Fabian, and Justyna. Welcome to Armando and Michelle!

Archaeal and bacterial genome size influenced by ecosystem type and trophic strategies

Today (2022-01-21) we had our latest publication featured in the SciLifeLab website

The analysis resulted in a broad overview of genome size distribution across three different ecosystems, showing that MAGs recovered from aquatic and host-associated ecosystems present smaller estimated genome sizes than those recovered from terrestrial ecosystems.

2nd Miint group photo

Today (2021-08-03) we had our second Miint group photo and outdoor social

Science needs real humans, diverse humans, to flourish. When we come together with our different ways of seeing the world, we can complement each other and make science stronger

More diverse green sulfur bacteria in the world than previously thought

Today (2021-05-20) our research was featured on the DEEP news webpage

“What we find the coolest from the work is that we find some of these Chlorobia strains to be abundant in different lakes and ponds in different continents. These bacteria live in the areas of the lakes that have no oxygen, below the first meters of oxygenated water. So, thinking about how some ubiquitous strains of these bacteria can be in these different isolated environments is interesting. Does it disperse and migrate, how does it tolerate oxygen then? Or were they rather everywhere before Earth became oxygenated billions of years ago?… There are a lot of unknowns and we still need to do more research to understand their physiology and role in biogeochemical cycles, says Sarahi Garcia”

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee of SciLifeLab wants to help provide a safe space and boost science

Today (2021-02-04) the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee of SciLifeLab that we co-funded was featured in SciLife Newsletter

“The goal was to create a safe platform where people can talk about diversity and inclusion. We also wanted to highlight the contribution of diversity to science. People with different backgrounds and different ways of thinking allow for more creative work”

Sarahi Garcia joined quest expanding known diversity of bacteria and archaea by 44%

Today (2020-11-10) we were featured in DEEP news, highlighting our small contribution to a big publication.

“my contribution is really small among the almost 200 co-authors. I think that is the magic of science ‘we stand on the shoulders of giants’, and as scientists work together in networks to uncover the secrets of nature”

The researcher seeking help from bacteria to create sustainable solutions

Today (2020-11-05) we were featured in Stockholm University news, as part of the 10th anniversary of SciLife.

“I want to understand microbial diversity and interactions between microorganisms in nature. As humans, we also need to appreciate our own diversity and cooperate for a better world. While that sounds idealistic, perhaps even utopian, if bacteria can achieve great things together perhaps we too can succeed in doing so”

New framework for studying populations within complex microbial communities explored

Today (2020-10-15) we were featured in the SciLifeLab Newsletter with one of our latest publication.

1st Miint group photo

Today (2020-08-05) we had our first group retreat and group photo. What a privilege to work in a group of heartful and brilliant scientists!

Researching microbial interactions against all odds – meet Sarahi Garcia

Today (2019-11-06) we were featured in the SciLifeLab webpage.

“Not everybody comes from an academic family and already know during their undergrad that they’re going into academia and therefore do all the right steps, click all the right buttons and contact all the right people. Not everybody has this path, and if we truly want diversity in science we need to have more role models for people that come from different backgrounds … If I can be a good influence and help people in finding their path in who they are and who they want to become, that makes me feel happy. “