The working group of Christian P. Kubicek focuses on fungi: fungi are the universally distributed 5th kingdom of organisms, which have numerous impacts on human life from decomposing waste over the production of biotechnological goodies to their hazardous action as human, animal and plant pathogens. The mission of this group is to use modern biological tools such as genomics, biochemistry, molecular biology and bioinformatics to understand the life cycle of fungi in order to be able to manipulate their behaviour towards human benefit. The biotechnological application of this research is in strain improvement. Research in this area is currently condensed in 4 project groups, each collaborating with C.P. Kubicek on several projects from industry or peer reviewed granting organizations. The working group is also part of the Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology.

Project group of Monika Schmoll

The project group of Monika Schmoll concentrates on signal transduction in Trichoderma, and its interplay with sexual reproduction.

Project group of Bernhard Seiboth

The project group of Bernhard Seiboth investigates the biochemistry and molecular biology of renewable plant biomass degradation by Trichoderma reesei, and is part of the Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology.

Project group of Verena Seidl

The project group of Verena Seidl focuses on the biochemistry and cell biology of protein families of Trichoderma which impact other organisms (plants, fungi) and which influence the fungal cell wall.

Project group of Susanne Zeilinger

The project group of Susanne Zeilinger investigates the role of intracellular signal transduction pathways and secondary metabolites during fungal interactions by using up-to-date molecular biological and biochemical approaches.