Hi! My name is Carl-Eric Wegner and I'm a research group leader affiliated with the Chair of Bioinorganic Chemistry at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
I'm a trained microbiologist with a background in applied biology, molecular/environmental microbiology, and bioinformatics. I'm driven by my interest in microbial physiology - how do microbes contribute to planetary health and how can we potentially use them to make our life more sustainable.
The work of the Wegner lab - the BIOMICS group - is centered around bioinorganic interactions and microbial omics. Our prime interest is lanthanide-dependent metabolism. Broader research interests include top-down / bottom-up microbial carbon cycling, subsurface microbiology, and metal cycling. For our work we follow an embedded omics approach, combining DNA sequencing-based methods with complementary methods, e.g. advanced electron microscopy and analytics.
Before moving to Düsseldorf in summer '24, I was working as lecturer and PI at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. I was affiliated with the collaborative research center AquaDiva (ended in summer '25) and PI in the collaborative research center ChemBioSys (ended in summer '26).
Looking for new challenges is part of my understanding of research and science. Feel free to reach out to carl-eric.wegner@hhu.de if you want to get in touch!
Recent publications.
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Biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) encoding secondary metabolites are found across nearly all bacterial and archaeal lineages, yet how BGC diversity is structured by habitat has remained unclear outside a handful of well-studied environments. Combining metagenomics and metatranscriptomics, we surveyed BGC diversity in a model peatland and found that the environment strongly governs which BGC classes are retained and expressed. Our results suggest specialized metabolites are a relevant factor regarding environmental adaptation, and broaden the search for novel natural products beyond the taxa traditionally screened by bioprospecting. LINK TO PAPER |
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| Nat. Commun. Human et al. (2026) | Biosynthetic gene clusters everywhere, but the environment selects (accepted) | |
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Relying on Beijerinckiaceae bacterium RH AL1 as a lanthanide (Ln)-accumulating model organism, known to accumulate and store lanthanides, we tested whether Ln mobilization and selective uptake also occur when lanthanides are supplied in mineral forms, differing in type, Ln content, and the availability of light Ln. Combining incubation experiments, advanced analytics, and advanced electron microscopy, we show that strain RH AL1 actively mobilizes light lanthanides, independent of the source, and selectively enriches and stores them intracellularly. LINK TO PAPER |
| Environ. Microbiol. Gorniak et al. (2026) | Source-independent enrichment of light lanthanides: microbial mobilization, selective uptake, and intracellular storage (accepted) | |
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Terrestrial subsurface biomass estimates remain uncertain. Most studies focus on planktonic groundwater communities, largely overlooking rock-attached and endolithic microbes. We directly compared rock-attached and planktonic microbial communities from the same aquifer system using metagenomics, revealing that the two habitats are characterized by distinct taxonomic profiles and metabolic strategies. The high abundance, metabolic specialization, and carbon fixation potential of attached microbes suggest that they are key drivers of subsurface biogeochemical processes. Subsurface biosphere assessments based on groundwater alone substantially underestimate the functional diversity of the deep subsurface. LINK TO PAPER |
| Microbiome Sharma et al. (2026) | Two worlds beneath: Distinct microbial strategies of the rock-attached and planktonic subsurface biosphere |