Elisabeth Grohmann has been a full Professor of Microbiology at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences (BHT) in the School of Life Sciences and Technology since 2015.
She studied Biochemistry at Technical University of Graz, where she also completed her PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Following her doctorate, she undertook postdoctoral research as an Erwin Schrödinger Fellow at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CSIC) in Madrid. She completed her Habilitation in Molecular Biology at the Technical University of Berlin and has since held positions at TU Berlin, Freiburg University Medical Center, and the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao.
Elisabeth Grohmann’s research focuses on molecular microbiology, with expertise in antimicrobial resistance and conjugative plasmid transfer. Her main interest lies in the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of conjugative plasmid transfer among Gram-positive bacteria via a bacterial nanomachine, the so-called type IV secretion system. Model organism also for research on environmental antimicrobial resistance spread is Enterococcus faecalis, the model plasmid is the inc18 broad-host-range conjugative plasmid pIP501. Another branch of research focuses on antimicrobial surfaces and the search for targeted biofilm inhibitors to prevent the formation of these microbial mats.