Researcher Profiles - AIT Austrian Institute Of Technology

PD Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Monika Schmoll PhD

Function

Senior Scientist

Center

Health & Bioresources

Competence Unit

Bioresources

E-Mail

Monika.Schmoll(at)ait.ac.at

Phone

+43 50550 3525

Fax

+43 50550 3666

Address

UFT, Konrad-Lorenz-Straße 24, 3430 Tulln

Career

Research

Field: Exploration of Biological Resources

Main Research: Environmental Signaling for Fungal Biotechnology

Experience:

Dr. Monika Schmoll received her degree (1999) and Ph. D. (2003) on the topic of “Regulation of cellulase expression and signal transduction in the filamentous fungus Hypocrea jecorina (Trichoderma reesei)” at the Vienna University of Technology. In 2013 she completed her habilitation (venia docendi) in the field of “Molecular Genetics and Genomics”. Besides gaining postdoctoral experience and building her own group at the Vienna University of Technology, she has been a visiting scientist in the laboratory of Professor N. Louise Glass (Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, USA), the University of Rome La Sapienza and the University of Szeged, Hungary.

She is author of 77 publications (h-factor 31) including several book chapters and reviews as well as (co-)editorship of 4 books. Dr. Schmoll is Senior Scientist and project leader at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Tulln, Austria and leads a work group with four PhD students, two Master students and one technician. The primary research field of Dr. Schmoll is the interconnection between light response, sexual development and cellulase gene expression in Trichoderma reesei. She showed for the first time that cellulase gene expression is modulated by light in T. reesei and could since then elucidate important mechanistic details on the underlying mechanism. Her group discovered the sexual cycle in the biotechnological workhorse Trichoderma, which had previously been considered asexual. This work was published in PNAS in 2009 and since then investigation of this phenomenon and its peculiarities in Trichoderma has become an additional focus. Her work with Trichoderma is complemented by contributions to genome annotation of several fungi (Trichoderma spp., Aspergillus nidulans, Postia placenta, Ceriporiopsis subvermispora, Phlebiopsis gigantea), especially in the field of signal transduction.

Our current research Focus

Our current research efforts are concentrated on elucidation of the signaling network which integrates various signals from the environment (light, nutrients, pheromones) to generate a fine tuned response to the conditions in every instant of an organisms life. Thereby we study the regulatory interplay of light perception by photoreceptors, heterotrimeric G-protein signaling and its regulation, pheromone response (sexual development) and the output pathway of cellulase gene expression. Based on these results we found a connection between carbon and secondary metabolism as well as the relevance of glucose sensing via the G-protein pathway for posttranscriptional regulation of cellulases and chemotropic responses.

On the one hand we aim to achieve a detailed understanding of the physiology of fungi in general, using Trichoderma reesei (Hypocrea jecorina) as a model system, and on the other hand our research with this versatile biotechnological workhorse will at the same time be beneficial for strain improvement and industrial applications such as biofuel production or heterologous protein expression.
Since we discovered the sexual cycle of Trichoderma reesei, we investigate and optimize this process for efficient use both in the lab and in industrial processes. Thereby we apply the knowledge gained from our studies of signal transduction pathways to elucidate interconnections between nutrient signaling and development.

Fungi are of high importance for our society, for example concerning the increasing number of immunocompromised patients, who are threatened by pathogenic fungi or as producers of peptaiboles, which are discussed as an alternative to classical antibiotics. Moreover, fungi, especially several Trichoderma spp. play an important role in biocontrol of plant pathogens and can thus serve as biological fungicide.

In all these processes, signal transduction proteins are key regulators of their efficiency. Hence a more detailed understanding of signaling in fungi will provide insights into mechanisms of signal transduction not only relevant to cellulase gene expression and biofuel production, but also to elucidate further mechanisms of importance for health and economy.

Professional Experience

1999-2003: PhD Student
Institute of Chemical Engineering, Vienna University of Technology / Austria
2003-2007: Postdoc
Institute of Chemical Engineering, Vienna University of Technology / Austria
2007-2010: Group leader
Institute of Chemical Engineering, Vienna University of Technology / Austria
2010-2012: Senior Scientist and Group leader
Institute of Chemical Engineering, Vienna University of Technology / Austria
2012-2013: Scientist,
Department Health and Environment, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology / Austria
2013-now: Senior Scientist,
Department Health and Environment, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, / Austria
2008-2008: Visiting Scholar
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley / USA

Assignment to Commitees / Memberships

2011: Management committee member of COST action FP0602 “Biotechnology for lignocellulose biorefineries”
2006: Member of the local organizing committee for the 8th European Conference on Fungal Genetics (ECFG8), April 8 – 11, Vienna, Austria
2006: Member of the local organizing committee for the First European Neurospora Meeting (Satellite Meeting of the ECFG8), April 8th,Vienna, Austria
2012 -: Member of the Editorial Board of "Applied and Environmental Microbiology"
2012 - : Member of the Editorial Board of "PLoS ONE"
2009 - 2012: Member of the Female Junior Faculty for the "AB Tech" PhD Program at TU Vienna
2014 -: Senior Editor of "Fungal Biology and Biotechnology"
2015 - : Board member of the Austrian Agency for Research Integrity (www.oeawi.at)
2017 -: Vice chair of the Board of the Austrian Association for Research Integrity (www.oeawi.at/en)

Awards

2007: APART fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)
2010: Young group leader presentation ÖGMBT
2013: Science award of the state of Lower Austria

Publications

Selected Journals

Books

17 Chapters;
Trichoderma – Biology and Applications
Author(s): various
Publisher: CAB International; 2013; 978-1-7864-247-5
Series: Mukherjee, P. K., Horwitz, B. A., Singh, U. S., Mukherjee, M and Schmoll, M.
40 Chapters;
Biotechnology and Biology of Trichoderma
Author(s): various
Publisher: Elsevier B. V. ; 2014; 550 pages; 978-0-444-59576-8
Series: Gupta, V. K, Schmoll M., Herrera-Estrella, A., Upadhyay, R. S., Druzhinina, I. and Tuohy, M. G.
Genomics analysis of biocontrol species and industrial enzyme producers from the genus Trichoderma;
Mycota XIII, Fungal Genomics
Author(s): Schmoll M., Seiboth B., Druzhinina I. S. and Kubicek C. P.
Publisher: Elsevier; 2014; 233-264; 978-3-642-45218
Series: Nowrousian M.; 2nd Edition
21 chapters;
Gene expression systems in fungi: advancements and applications
Author(s): various
Publisher: Springer; Heidelberg; 2016; 1-499; 978-3-319-27949-7
Series: Monika Schmoll and Christoph Dattenböck; Fungal Biology Series

Patents

Filamentous fungi with improved properties (#13196402.5)
Inventor: Monika Schmoll, Doris Tisch, André Schuster, Michael Freitag, Kyle Pomraning, Ting-Fang Wang
Submission Date: 10.12.2013
Issue Date: 16.04.2018

Researcher Profile