The Lower Saxony Ministry of Finance has appointed Prof. Dr. Yvonne Mast as acting scientific director of the Leibniz Institute DSMZ–German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH. She will take up the position until a new appointment is made in a joint appointment procedure with the Technical University of Braunschweig. The appointment follows the departure of long-standing Scientific Director Prof. Dr. Jörg Overmann, who led the DSMZ from 2010 to July 2025, to Munich. Bettina Fischer will remain Administrative Director.
Prof. Dr. Yvonne Mast is Professor of Applied Microbiology at the Technical University of Braunschweig and heads the Department of Bioresources for Bioeconomy and Health Research at the Leibniz Institute DSMZ. Her research focuses on the biosynthesis and regulation of secondary metabolites from actinomycetes, in particular on the activation of silent gene clusters for the discovery of new biotechnologically and medically relevant active substances.
Click here for the DSMZ press release.