Life and education
Having initially gone to university to study languages and economics, Schleper eventually switched to studying biology. She received a Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in 1995 and subsequently did postdoctoral research at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.Work and discoveries
Schleper is known for research advancing understanding of uncultivated Archaea in marine and terrestrial systems. Schleper's early research on ''Sulfolobus'' was the first research to indicate the presence of a virus in a thermophilic Archaea. Schleper went on to isolate multiple thermophilic Archaea capable of growth under acidic conditions, and led 16S RNA surveys to define the distribution of crenarchaeota in terrestrial environments. During postdoctoral research, Schleper used biochemical information from a low-temperature crenarchaeota to propose a non-thermophilic origin for these crenarchaeota, a novel idea at the time it was proposed in 1997. Schleper's more recent research has advanced understanding of ammonia-oxidizing thaumarchaeota. The research into ammonia-oxidizing archaea used the newly-isolated ''Nitrososphaera viennensis'' EN76 to provide the first description of the genes and proteins shared by terrestrial and marine ammonia-oxidizing archaea. Schleper's research on Lokiarchaeota provides a platform to examine the evolution of life from single celled organisms into complex, multicellular organisms. Schleper has three patents granted: Isolation and cloning of DNA from uncultivated organisms, Archaeon expression system and Nucleic acids and proteins from ''Cenarchaeum symbiosum''.Awards and recognition
* 2001References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schleper, Christa German microbiologists Academic staff of the University of Vienna Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology 1962 births Living people People from Oberhausen German expatriates in Austria 21st-century women scientists Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Scientists from North Rhine-Westphalia Women microbiologists 21st-century German scientists German women biologists 21st-century German women