Ilya Osterman
Ilya Osterman has recently started a research group at EMBL Hamburg, where he studies how metabolism and immunity are interconnected in the bacteria-phage arms race.
Although originally trained as a chemist at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Ilya’s PhD and postdoctoral research lay at the intersection of biochemistry and molecular biology, including translation and RNA biology. In 2019, Ilya became a group leader at Skoltech in Moscow, where he led research on ribosome-targeting antibiotics and new antimicrobial compounds.
In 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ilya decided to leave the country and moved with his family to Israel. There, he joined Rotem Sorek’s lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science, going from an independent group leader back to working within another PI’s group. During his time at Weizmann, Ilya shifted his focus towards bacterial immunity and particularly the role of metabolites such as NAD+ in defence against phage infection.
In August 2026, Ilya became a group leader for the second time, now at EMBL Hamburg. During his talk, Ilya will give us insight into how he came to be a PI – twice – and how a scientific career might not always follow a straight path.
