Georg Fritz is an Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow at the UWA School of Molecular Sciences, where he leads a group of around 15 researchers working at the interface of physics, microbiology and biotechnology. Trained as a theoretical physicist (PhD, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, 2012), he brings a quantitative, model-driven mindset to synthetic biology.

His group pioneered the use of Vibrio natriegens, the fastest-growing bacterium known, as a next-generation platform for sustainable biomanufacturing. By creating the first open-source genetic toolkits for this organism (the Marburg Collection and the Vnat Collection, now used by laboratories around the world), his team turned a once-intractable marine microbe into a workhorse for green biotechnology. They apply it to some of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time: converting industrial CO₂ and organic waste into biodegradable plastics, breaking down plastic pollution, and producing greener chemicals at industrially relevant speed.

Before UWA, Georg was an independent group leader at the SYNMIKRO Center for Synthetic Microbiology in Marburg (2014 to 2019) and a postdoctoral fellow at the Biocenter in Munich, where he studied antibiotic resistance in Gram-positive bacteria. His research has attracted around AU$20M in funding and features regularly in leading journals including Nature Microbiology, Nature Communications and Nucleic Acids Research. 

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

Georg combines quantitative modelling with hands-on synthetic biology to engineer microbes that solve real-world problems. His current interests include:

• Engineering Vibrio natriegens as an ultra-fast chassis for synthetic biology and biomanufacturing
• Producing biodegradable bioplastics (polyhydroxyalkanoates) from CO₂, waste and renewable feedstocks
• Microbial and enzymatic degradation of plastic pollution
• Carbon capture and utilisation: converting CO₂ into chemicals and materials
• Design, modelling and implementation of synthetic genetic circuits in bacteria
• Mechanisms and regulation of antimicrobial resistance
• Bacterial growth physiology and the physical limits of life

Selected publications

Faber A., Politan R.J., Stukenberg D., Morris K.M., Kim R., Jeon E., Inckemann R., Becker A., Thuronyi B., and Fritz G. (2025) Expanding genetic engineering capabilities in Vibrio natriegens with the Vnat Collection. Nucleic Acids Research 53, gkaf580.

Politan R.J., Della Valle S., Pineda L., Joshi J., Euler C., Flematti G., and Fritz G. (2025) Establishing Vibrio natriegens as a high-performance host for acetate-based poly-3-hydroxybutyrate production. Metabolic Engineering 92, 22-38.

Della Valle S., Faber A., Politan R.J., Lama S., and Fritz G. (2025) From marsh to market: taming Vibrio natriegens for sustainable bioproduction. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 96, 103353.

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 Synthetic Biology 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. Nucleic Acids Research 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. Nature Microbiology 5, 395–406

Piepenbreier H., Diehl A., and Fritz G. (2019), Minimal exposure of lipid II cycle intermediates triggers cell wall antibiotic resistance. Nature Communications, 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. Nucleic Acids Research 46, 7450–7464 

Funding

Across his career Georg has secured approximately AU$20M in competitive funding across 16 research and 5 infrastructure grants, leading 11 as sole or first Chief Investigator and channelling around AU$6.3M directly to his group. 

Selected grants

2026 to 2029. Williamson A., Fritz G., Hicks J.L., Whelan D.R. Can bacteria repair extracellular DNA to become antibiotic resistant? Royal Society of New Zealand, Marsden Fund (NZ$941k).

2026 to 2029. Peng H., Marcellin E., Fritz G., Chooi Y.-H.; Joshi J. (Woodside). Sustainable production of high-value feed ingredients from CO2. Australian Research Council, Linkage Project (LP250200258).

2025 to 2028. Fritz G., Della Valle S. VIBRANT: Vibrio natriegens bioengineering for rapid conversion of sugarcane derivatives into polyhydroxyalkanoates. Minderoo Foundation (AU$2,395k).

2025 to 2028. Waldminghaus T., Blombach B., Fritz G. VIPP: Vibrio natriegens as an auspicious host for plasmid DNA production. Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany (€498k).

2024 to 2029. Fox A., Lister R., Blancafort P., et al., Fritz G. et al. Australian Centre for RNA Therapeutics for Cancer. Cancer Council WA, WA State Government and partners (AU$6,143k).

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

2024 to 2028. Fritz G. Establishing Vibrio natriegens as an ultra-rapid host for synthetic biology. Australian Research Council, Future Fellowship (FT230100283) (AU$973k).

2023 to 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 and Woodside Energy, Linkage Project (LP220100185) (AU$1,607k).

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

2025 to 2026. Kretzmann J., Fritz G., et al. High-throughput flow cytometry facility. UWA Rolling Research Infrastructure Fund (AU$176k).

2021 to 2024. Waters M., Flematti G., Fritz G. From energy stress to hormones: new signals in bacteria and plants. Australian Research Council, Discovery Project (DP210103078) (AU$462k).

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

2015 to 2019. Becker A., Fritz G., Goesmann A. ECFexpress: an orthogonal, organism-independent expression platform based on ECF σ factors. BMBF, ERASynBio (031L0010B) (€828k).

2015 to 2019. Fritz G. Heterogeneous cell wall homeostasis as a survival strategy in stationary phase. German Research Foundation (DFG), SPP1617 (FR 3673/1-2) (€200k).