Latest News

Mai was awarded the 2nd place for her poster  presented at the University of Minnesota Biofilm & Microbial Communities Symposium on April 22, 2022.

This award is given to a talented graduate 

student whose research emphasizes enzymology. Congratulations for this great achivement!

New project funded by US DOE, with Prof. Gralnick and lead by Prof. Schmidt-Dannert, aims at creating bioreactors to convert CO2 into formate.

Reed Jacobson receives the 2021 3M Science & Technology  Graduate Fellowship at the BMBB department banquet.

Prof. Elias and Prof. Harcombe discuss microbial abilities to exchange information at the Bell Science Museum.

Examining the rapid decline in phosphorus  and subsequent decline of water quality due to run-off. 

Dr. Elias and Dr. Wackett receive a MnDrive grant to investigate potential PFAS degradation systems.

Congratulations to Mai Beauclaire for entering the NIH biotechnology training grant program!

Enzyme-based coatings developed at the University of Minnesota help protect port infrastructure by disrupting the signals underwater bacteria use to communicate. 

Anthony Jenks receives the 2019 Armstrong-Pothapragada Graduate Fellowship at the BMBB department banquet.

The French Crystallography Association awards Celine Bergonzi the Best PhD thesis award in Biology.

The Elias Lab received a prestigious NIH award to investigate microbial signaling.

Read a new story about our enzyme-based coating technology.

“Silencing” bacteria may give scientists an antibiotic-free route to controlling infections and balancing the microbiome.

An article of the Gateway magazine on our research project involving bacterial control and biocorrosion.

Dr. Rakesh Sikdar receives a best poster award at the Biofilms 2019 meeting for his demonstration of the efficacy of quorum quenching enzymes in C. elegans infection models.

Dr. Elias wins the Best Undergraduate Research Mentor Award at the Golgen Pipettes Ceremony.

Infography credits: Jenna Privatsky (Designer), AnnaMarie Rutledge (Writer)

The Elias lab presented scientific work at the annual iPrime meeting in Minneapolis

The Elias lab research is featured in the spring 2018 edition of the Bio magazine! see here.

Engineering enzymes to clean up the environment. The panelists include Mikael Elias, an assistant professor in the University's Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics and its Biotechnology Institute, and Paige Novak, a professor in the University's Department of Civil Engineering.

Dr Elias received the Faculty Choice Award at the Golden Pipettes ceremony.

For his recent discoveries on enzymatic bacterial control, Dr. Elias is the Early Innovator Award in the year 2017.

UMN researcher in the Elias Lab searches for clues to bacterial communication.

Mikael Elias and colleagues engineer an enzyme that rapidly neutralizes the toxicity of common pesticides and herbicides.

Time-lapse of the crystal growth of an enzyme (lactonase from Geobacillus caldoxylosilyticus)

Enzymes were engineered to disrupt bacterial signaling and alter bacterial bahavior.

The Elias lab presented results on poster at the symposium organized by the BioTechnology Institute, Profs. Mike Freeman and Mikael Elias

Louis receives a UROP fellowship to support his research of the bacterial phosphate uptake system.

Louis received the 2016 Harold Paul Morris Memorial Scholarship.

Elias Lab @ the BMBB Department at the Itasca Biological Station.

Celine Bergonzi wins the poster award in Marseille (picture credit AFC)

Mikael Elias, Vanessa Pegos and Bo Hu go over their approach on their winning grand challenge project on phosphate removal and recycling.

Celine Bergonzi, Mike Schwab and Vanessa Pegos are presenting their findings to industrial and academic fellows @ iPrime

https://www.eliaslab.org/iprime-2016 

Dr. Elias and Lab folks are going to share recent findings at iPrime.

Dr. Elias is talking about the optimized enzyme generated in the lab to disrupt bacterial communication.

Louis has been awarded the Harold Paul Morris Memorial Scholarship and the Danielson Blake Family  Scholarship. Congratulations!

Here is the new version of the lab website !

Congrats to Celine, she received the Jean Walter Zellidja award!

Vanessa had been awarded a Grand Challenges in Biology award by the College of Biological Sciences!

Because Pseudomonas aeruginosa can be totally resistant to all antibiotics that we know, it can become an incurable infection...

Ask Mikael Elias about his research interests and you may be surprised by his response...

Portrait of French native Mikael Elias, an incoming biochemistry assistant professor...