Aleks Nivina
Junior group leader
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
University of Zurich
Winterthurerstrasse 190
8057 Zurich
Office: Y27-J-46
Email
Research interests
Natural product biosynthesis, modular polyketide synthases, antibiotic biosynthesis, antibiotic resistance, enzyme evolution, evolutionary innovation, DNA recombination and gene conversion
CV
Education and professional positions
| 2023 - present | Junior Group leader (SNSF Ambizione fellow), Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Switzerland |
| 2022 - 2023 | Scientist, Molecular and Cell Biology Group, Codexis Inc., San Carlos, California, USA |
| 2017 - 2022 | Postdoctoral fellow, Chemistry Department, Stanford University, California, USA |
| 2017 | Postdoctoral Fellow, Genetics Department, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France |
| 2012 - 2016 | Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Biology, Genetics Department, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France |
| 2011 - 2012 | M.Sc. in Systems and Synthetic Biology, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Paris Descartes University, France |
| 2006 - 2015 | Pharm.D. in Pharmaceutical Research, Faculty of Pharmacy, Paris Descartes University, France |
See complete publication list on Google Scholar: list.
Selected publications
- Nivina A.*, Paredes SH.*, Fraser HB., Khosla C. (2021). GRINS: Genetic elements that recode assembly-line polyketide synthases and accelerate their diversification. PNAS, 118(26):e2100751118 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2100751118
- Nivina A., Grieb MS., Loot C., Bikard D., Cury J., Shehata L., Bernardes J., Mazel D. (2020). Structure-specific DNA recombination sites: Design, validation, and machine learning-based refinement. Science Advances, 6(30):eaay2922 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay2922
- Nivina A., Yuet KP., Hsu J., Khosla C. (2019). Evolution and Diversity of Assembly-Line Polyketide Synthases. Chemical Reviews, 119(24):12524-12547. DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.9b00525
- Escudero JA., Nivina A., Kemble HE., Loot C., Tenaillon O., Mazel D. (2020). Primary and promiscuous functions coexist during evolutionary innovation through whole protein domain acquisitions. eLife, 9:e58061. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.58061
- Loot C.*, Nivina A.*, Cury J., Escudero JA., Ducos-Galand M., Bikard D., Rocha EPC., Mazel D. (2017). Differences in Integron Cassette Excision Dynamics Shape a Trade-Off between Evolvability and Genetic Capacitance. mBio, 8(2):e02296-16 . DOI: 10.1128/mBio.02296-16
- Escudero JA., Loot C., Parissi V., Nivina A., Bouchier C., Mazel D. (2016). Unmasking the ancestral activity of integron integrases reveals a smooth evolutionary transition during functional innovation. Nature Communications, 7:10937. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10937