Georg is a physicist with a strong interest in synthetic microbiology and works as a Senior Lecturer at the UWA School of Molecular Sciences. He completed his PhD in theoretical physics in 2012 at the Ludwigs-Maximilians University Munich, where he worked on theoretical models of gene regulatory circuits, with a particular focus on the regulation of bacterial stress responses. Georg then became a Postdoctoral fellow at the Biocenter in Munich, where he shifted focus to experimental work on antibiotic resistance mechanisms in Gram-positive bacteria. In 2014 he was appointed as a research group leader at the SYNMIKRO Center for Synthetic Microbiology in Marburg, Germany, which allowed him to build an interdisciplinary research profile focused on systems and synthetic biology approaches to break antimicrobial resistance. Since 2019 he has been pursuing this, as well as new lines of research on microbial plastic degradation and bioplastic production, as a ‘Be Inspired’ Senior Lecturer for Synthetic Biology at UWA.

Please visit his lab website at http://www.fritz-lab.org

With an interdisciplinary background in theoretical physics and microbiology, Georg's research interests cover a broad spectrum of dynamic regulatory processes in living organisms. These include:

• Mechanisms and regulation of antimicrobial resistance
• Engineering microbial solutions to remediate plastic pollution
• Production of bioplastics from renewable sources
• Design and implementation of synthetic genetic circuits in bacteria
• Computational modelling of biological networks
• Single molecule dynamics in living cells
• Co-evolution of protein-protein interaction interfaces

Funding

2022  Fritz G., Waters M., Chooi Y.-H., Millar H., Bond C., Low P., Stubbs K., Moggach, S. Towards building a carbon dioxide foundry, Woodside Energy Ltd. ($232k)

2021 – 2022  Fritz G. VibrioPET: Engineering the ultra-fast growing marine bacterium Vibrio natriegens into a microbial platform for rapid bio-degradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics, Woodside Energy Ltd. ($30k)

2021-2022  Y.-H. Chooi, S. Abraham, P. Kaur, G. Flematti, M. O’Dea, G. Fritz, R. Abraham, COVIDexpress: High-throughput platform for screening of drugs to treat COVID-19 and rapid diagnosis, Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Focus Grant ($862k)

2021-2023  M. Waters, G. Flemmatti, G. Fritz, From energy stress to hormones: new signals in bacteria and plantsAustralian Research Council (ARC), Discovery Project (DP210103078) ($462k)

2015-2019  G. Fritz, Heterogeneous cell wall homeostasis as a survival strategy in stationary phase: balancing cell growth, antibiotic production, and envelope stress response in Bacillus subtilis, German Research Foundation (DFG), SPP1617 priority program (FR 3673/1-2) (€200k)

2015-2019  A. Becker, G. Fritz and A. Goesmann, ECFexpress: An orthogonal, organism-independent expression platform based on extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factors, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), ERASynBio transnational research project (031L0010B) (€828k)

2012  G. Fritz, Temporal heterogeneity of gene induction in the BceRS-BceAB system of Bacillus subtilisGerman Research Foundation (DFG), Start-up grant (€10k)