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Two new Professors appointed to the Biozentrum
Yuping Li and David Brückner have been appointed by the University Council to be new Professors at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. Yuping Li studies the interactions between bacteria and large viruses, so-called jumbophages. In his research, David Brückner investigates the role of biophysical mechanisms in cell fate decisions and tissue patterning in embryonic development.
On Monday, July 1, 2024, the University Council approved the appointment of two new professors to the Biozentrum of the University of Basel.
Yuping Li is to become the new assistant professor (with tenure track) for infection and immunity in the Faculty of Science. She will assume the position at the University of Basel’s Biozentrum and the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) AntiResist on 1 October 2024.
Li received her Bachelor of Engineering in Bioinformatics from Huazhong University of Science & Technology in Wuhan, China. In 2013, she started her PhD studies at Stanford University where she completed her dissertation on quantitative understanding of adaptation and trade-offs in microbial evolution. Since 2019, Li has been a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, studying how bacteria fight against their underappreciated large viruses, called jumbophages. Additionally, she spent time as a visiting scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg from October 2022 to June 2023.
Li's research spans the fields of computational and experimental biology. Her group will focus on the genetic and evolutionary study of bacteria-jumbophage interactions, with a particular emphasis on bacterial defense systems against jumbophages. This research will complement and enhance the work of both the NCCR AntiResist and the Biozentrum.
David Brückner is the new tenure-track assistant professor of theoretical biophysics in the Faculty of Science. He will take up his position at the Biozentrum on 1 April 2025.
David Brückner studied physics and natural sciences at the University of Cambridge and obtained his doctorate in physics from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 2021. He is currently an EMBO and NOMIS postdoc at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), where he has been working since August 2021. Research stays have taken him to prestigious institutions such as the Aspen Center for Physics and KITP Santa Barbara in the USA.
Brückner’s research focuses on the dynamics of multicellular systems and the development of models for cell differentiation and migration. At ISTA, he is currently researching how cells and tissues coordinate the formation of patterns and shapes through complex biophysical mechanisms. His research combines theoretical models with experimental data and contributes to our understanding of cell and tissue behavior.
Contact: Communications