Prof. Ute Römling is Professor of Medical Microbial Physiology at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. She is also Adjunct Faculty at the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Pakistan. Dr. Römling’s long-standing research interest is the molecular and epidemiological analysis of biofilm formation in microorganisms with a certain focus on regulation by cyclic di-nucleotide second messenger signaling and implication of extracellular matrix production including microbial-host interactions. Another major long-standing research interest concerns the survival and persistence mechanisms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa clone C world-wide predominant in patients and aquatic habitats.
We have (re)discovered cyclic di-GMP as a ubiquitous second messenger in bacteria regulating sessility/motility life style transition. A virulence/benign biofilm life style transition is regulated by cyclic di-GMP in Salmonella typhimurium. We have also identified the orphan transcriptional regulator CsgD as a major activator of the rdar colony biofilm and the exopolysaccharide cellulose as an extracellular matrix component of the rdar biofilm. Recently, we have identified a cyclic di-GMP signaling network in Streptococcus species associated with prediced cellulose production.