Rate My Professor Oliver Dietrich

Dr. Oliver Dietrich is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Fineran Laboratory, Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Otago, within the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences. His research specializes in comparative genomics of bacteria and phages to advance precision phage biocontrol. Bacteria cause diseases in humans, animals, and plants, yet they are susceptible to bacteriophages, viruses that specifically infect bacteria. Dietrich investigates how interactions between bacteria and phages are shaped by surface interactions, bacterial immune systems, and viral counter-defenses, all facilitated by proteins encoded in their genomes. By analyzing genome composition, he determines influences on infection outcomes and develops predictive models based on sequence data. This approach enables the targeted use of phages to control bacterial pathogens. In his upcoming seminar on April 14, 2025, titled 'Comparative genomics of bacteria and phages for precision phage biocontrol,' he will present results on the susceptibility of the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae to phages isolated from cherry orchards in Central Otago.

Dietrich co-authored the 2025 Cell Host & Microbe paper 'Phage arabinosyl-hydroxy-cytosine DNA modifications result in abortive infection,' contributing equally to research revealing how phage DNA modifications trigger bacterial abortive infection responses, enhancing knowledge of anti-phage defenses involving CRISPR-Cas systems and restriction-modification mechanisms. He earned his PhD from the University of Würzburg at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research, with a thesis titled 'Integrating single-cell multi-omics to decipher host-pathogen interactions,' defended in 2024. Additional publications include 'Feature selection methods affect the performance of scRNA-seq data analysis' (2025), 'Dysregulated Immunometabolism Is Associated with the Generation of a Distinct Platelet Subset' (2021), and 'SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers profibrotic macrophage responses and lung fibrosis.' His bioinformatics expertise in single-cell RNA sequencing and host-pathogen dynamics supports innovative phage therapy applications.