idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
11 February 2026 / Kiel. After ten years at renowned research institutions in the United States, biogeochemist Dr Viktoria Steck has accepted a position leading an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Her work focuses on an invisible yet central driver of the ocean: metallo-enzymes, which power biogeochemical cycles and enable life in the sea.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts are big names in ocean research. Both institutions are renowned for their world-class research. Anyone who works there has made it. One such researcher is Dr Viktoria Steck, who conducted research at both institutions. After spending ten years in the United States, she has now returned to her home country of Germany to set up a junior research group at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel.
Viktoria Steck’s journey into ocean research was by no means predetermined. She began studying chemistry at Humboldt University of Berlin in 2009, before moving on to biochemistry. With her doctorate at the University of Rochester in New York, she began working on proteins and enzymes in 2016. She now brings her expertise to the marine biogeochemistry research area at GEOMAR.
Throughout her scientific career, she has always been active beyond her own research. She served as President of the Chemistry Student Council at Humboldt University of Berlin and later became President of the Postdoc Association at Scripps. While at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, she was also actively involved in the “Women’s and Gender Minorities in Science” initiative.
Leaving the United States – and starting anew
Did she leave the United States because of recent political developments in defunding science? Steck pauses briefly. “Let’s put it this way: it makes saying goodbye easier.” Her successful application to the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) for the Emmy Noether Programme provides her with excellent conditions for a fresh start in Kiel.
She begins not entirely from scratch, however, as she has brought her research topic with her. The title of her research group is “Marine Metalloproteins”. The focus is on oceanic enzymes that bind metals and thereby enable chemical reactions that would otherwise not occur.
Steck’s research focuses on biogeochemical cycles in the ocean, including the phosphorus cycle. “Phosphorus is essential for life,” she explains. “All cells need it for energy supply, and it limits the growth of phytoplankton in many regions.”
Phytoplankton are microscopic, single-celled plants that carry out photosynthesis and produce around half of the Earth’s oxygen. They form the basis of marine food webs. But what drives these processes? “They all rely on metallo-enzymes,” says Steck.
When proteins encounter metals
To understand exactly how these enzymes work, she studies their mode of action at the molecular level. “When a protein binds a metal, something special happens,” Steck explains. “The protein shell protects the metal, and the metal, in turn, enables reactions that would not take place without this biological environment.”
This interaction is unique. Reactions that occur in nature with the help of metallo-enzymes cannot be replicated in a laboratory setting. For example, researchers have long been trying to efficiently convert the climate-damaging gas methane using technical approaches, albeit with limited success. Nature, by contrast, has been breaking down methane biologically for billions of years. The key here, too, lies in metallo-enzymes, which can ‘crack’ this chemically very stable gas and make it available to microorganisms as a source of energy and carbon.
This is what has always fascinated Viktoria Steck: “Nature has developed these processes and, even today, we humans still do not fully understand how some of them work, despite our desire to harness them.”
Why understanding these processes matters today
As the ocean changes, understanding metallo-enzymes is becoming ever more important. Temperatures are rising, pH values are declining, and pollutants and oxygen depletion are spreading. “We need to understand how phytoplankton and metallo-proteins work,” says Steck. “Only then can we assess how they react to changing conditions – for example, if the availability of metals in the ocean changes.”
These findings can then be incorporated into models that simulate the development of primary production and oxygen supply by phytoplankton in changing environmental conditions.
“It’s like the smallest cog in a clockwork,” Steck explains. “If it breaks and no longer engages, eventually the whole clock stops.”
Laboratory work and expeditions
Methodologically, Steck’s junior research group combines two approaches. In the laboratory, researchers produce metallo-enzymes using microbes and examine individual, isolated proteins at a molecular level.
At the same time, they investigate the full breadth of metallo-proteins in the ocean. During expeditions to the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean, the team will filter thousands of litres of seawater to capture the diversity of phytoplankton proteins. “This approach allows us to identify the metallo-enzymes that occur under natural conditions,” says Steck. She became familiar with this type of fieldwork, known as ‘metaproteomics’, at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
In addition to phosphorus, the group will particularly focus on manganese. This element plays a key role in photosynthesis because it is involved in the process of water splitting, whereby oxygen is produced. Furthermore, manganese is found in proteins that are responsible for phosphorus uptake. This connection was identified by Steck during her research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Seagulls as a sign of home
Three doctoral researcher positions will support her, which are currently being advertised. She will also benefit from exchanging ideas with scientists around the world, not least thanks to her close links with colleagues in the United States.
Steck has already settled in well in Kiel. Although she is still waiting to move into her own flat, she was delighted by one thing immediately upon arrival. “I love that there are seagulls in this city,” she says with a laugh. “It means the sea is close.” And without that proximity to the sea, the Franconian native can no longer imagine her life.
About: Emmy Noether Programme
Funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), the Emmy Noether Programme gives exceptionally qualified early career researchers the chance to qualify for a professorship by leading an independent junior research group for a period of six years.
https://www.geomar.de/news/article/exzellente-forschung-zu-den-molekularen-grund...
https://www.geomar.de/forschen/nachwuchsgruppen Early Career Research Groups at GEOMAR
https://www.geomar.de/karriere-campus/karriere/job-single/doktorandin-m-w-d-meta... PhD position: Metalloenzymes in the nutrient metabolism of marine phytoplankton
Nach Stationen an mehreren renommierten Forschungsinstitutionen in den USA bringt Dr. Viktoria Stec ...
Source: Ilka Thomsen
Copyright: Foto: Ilka Thomsen, GEOMAR
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