I did my MSc and PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany. My PhD focused on host-symbiont interaction and metabolism of sulfur-oxidising and methane-oxidising symbionts from deep-sea mussels.

At the Quadram Institute I am working on sulfate-reducing bacteria that reside in the GI tract of humans and animals and the role they play in the development of inflammatory conditions. Specifically, I am developing molecular genetic tools to identify how the bacterium Desulphovibrio piger colonises and maintains the association with other members of the gut microbiome.

Key Publications

Rubin-Blum M, Antony CP, Borowski C, Sayavedra L, Pape T, Sahling H, Bohrmann G, Dubilier N. Short-chain alkanes fuel the metabolism of symbiotic Cycloclasticus from deep-sea gas and petroleum seeps. Nature Microbiology. doi: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2017.93

Ponnudurai RP, Kleiner M, Sayavedra L, Petersen J, Moche M, Otto A, et al. (2016). Metabolic and physiological interdependencies in the Bathymodiolus azoricus symbiosis. ISME. doi:10.1038/ismej.2016.124

Breusing C, Biastoc A, Drews A, Metaxas A, Jollivet D, Vrijenhoek RC, Bayer T, Melzner F, Sayavedra L., et al. (2016). Biophysical and population genetic models predict the presence of “phantom” stepping stones connecting Mid-Atlantic Ridge vent ecosystems. Current Biology. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.06.062

Sayavedra L, Kleiner M, Ponnudurai R, Wetzel S, Pelletier E, Barbe V, et al. (2015). Abundant toxin-related genes in the genomes of beneficial symbionts from deep-sea hydrothermal vent mussels. eLife 4. doi: 10.7554/eLife.07966