Urs Jenal

Urs Jenal is a Swiss Microbiologist and Professor at the Biozentrum University of Basel, Switzerland.

Urs Jenal studied Experimental Biology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and received his PhD from there in 1991. Subsequently, he completed postdoctoral research at the ETH Zurich and at Stanford University, USA. Since 1996, Jenal has taught and conducted research at the Biozentrum University of Basel; first as an Assistant Professor and since 2002 as a Professor of Molecular Microbiology.

The research of Urs Jenal explores the molecular basis of signal transduction controlling the growth, development and behavior of bacteria. Jenal received international acclaim through his discovery of a new pathway, which is based on a new cyclic di-nucleotide (c-di-GMP) and which coordinates the formation of microbial biofilms and contributes to the development of chronic bacterial infections. With the model bacterium Caulobacter crescentus, Jenal discovered that c-di-GMP controls the transition from motile bacteria to a sedentary biofilm-forming structure and this process coordinates the replication cycle of the cells. Jenal’s most recent work has investigated the importance of the c-di-GMP signaling network for chronic lung infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in patients with cystic fibrosis.

• 2011: Elected member of the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM)
• 2012: Elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)

• American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), Fellows Elected in 2011
• European Molecular Biology Organization Membership