Forschen für die Umwelt

Serena Caucci

CV

Research interests

I am interested in microbial ecology/ molecular biology. During my studies in Environmental Science I worked on the analysis of terrestrial systems dynamics mainly in soil (natural or cultivated) and applied molecular techniques to determine biodiversity and shifts in microbial communities structure (especially fungi and eubacteria) or functional group composition with regard to environmental fluctuations and traumatic ecological-events.
Actually, my research focuses on gene transfer as a source/sink of resistance in complex bacterial communities.
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a severe public-health problem. Wastewater treatment plants are suspected hot spot for horizontal gene transfer (HGT). This is due to the high density of growing bacteria and convenient condition for themselves. On this way, different resistances can be sheared with other bacteria and released in the environment.
The overall goal of my study is to contribute to the fundamental understanding of bacterial resistance to antibiotics in wastewater by studying populations (phenotypic characterization), HGT and genetics elements mainly involved in this phenomenon.

Current research
Horizontal gene transfer in wastewater treatment plants.

Veranstaltungen

Blogs, Feeds & Social Media

Jetzt online