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 regulatory processes and metabolic networks 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

Selected publications

Stukenberg D., Hensel T., Hoff J., Daniel B., Inckemann R., Tedeschi J.N., Nousch F., and Fritz G. (2021) The Marburg Collection: A Golden Gate DNA Assembly Framework for Synthetic Biology Applications in Vibrio natriegens. ACS Synth. Biol. 10, 1904–1919

Casas-Pastor D., Müller R.R., Becker A., Buttner M., Gross C., Mascher T., Goesmann A., and Fritz G. (2021), Expansion and re-classification of the extracytoplasmic function (ECF) σ factor family. Nucl. Acids Res. 49, 986-1005

Iyer S.C., Casas-Pastor D., Kraus D., Mann P., Schirner K., Glatter T., Fritz G., Ringgaard S. (2020), Transcriptional regulation by σ-factor phosphorylation in bacteria. Nat. Microbiol. 5, 395–406

Piepenbreier H., Diehl A., and Fritz G. (2019), Minimal exposure of lipid II cycle intermediates triggers cell wall antibiotic resistance. Nat. Comm., 10, 2733 

Pinto D.*, Vecchione S.*, Wu H., Mauri M., Mascher T., and Fritz G. (2018), Engineering orthogonal synthetic timer circuits based on extracytoplasmic function σ factors. Nucl. Acids Res. 46, 7450–7464 

Funding

2024 – 2027. Hwa T., van Teeffelen S., Pilizota, T., Fritz G. (2024) Elucidating physio-chemical forces setting the limit of bacterial growth. Human Frontier Science Program, Research Grant (RGP013/2024) (US$1,500k)

2024–2028. Fritz G., Establishing Vibrio natriegens as Ultra-Rapid Host for Synthetic Biology. Australian Research Council (ARC), Future Fellowship Level 2 (FT230100283) (AU$972k)

2023–2027.  Fritz G., Low P., Iyer K.-S., Chooi Y.-H., Euler C., Taylor N., Koutsantonis G., Joshi, J. Building a carbon dioxide foundry for sustainable carbon capture and utilisation. Australian Research Council (ARC), Woodside Energy Ltd., Linkage Project (LP220100185) (AU$1,607k)

2023–2026. Fritz G., Gebhard S. Synthetic biology tools for just-in-time control of biosynthetic pathways. Australian Research Council (ARC), Discovery Project (DP230103107) (AU$459k)

2022–2023. Fritz G., Fae Neto W., Tomkins J., Waters M., Ludwig M., Taylor N., Chooi Y.-H. (2022) Exploring microalgae candidates and farming methods for CO₂ sequestration and valorisation. OceanWorks Prototyping Project, Woodside FutureLabs Network ($10k)

2022-2023.  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. ($371k)

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

2015-2019.  Fritz G., 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.  Becker A., Fritz G. and Goesmann A., 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.  Fritz G., Temporal heterogeneity of gene induction in the BceRS-BceAB system of Bacillus subtilisGerman Research Foundation (DFG), Start-up grant (€10k)