Research Interests

The aim of my research project is to find novel antibacterial compounds produced by the microbiome of marine sponges. A collection of bacteria isolated from sponges Hymeniacidon perlevis and Halichondria panicea will be screened for their antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus strains. The sponge-isolated bacteria with the most relevant antibacterial activity will be further investigated, by (1) isolating and purifying the antibacterial compounds to identify them and (2) sequencing the bacterial genomes and transcriptomes to gain more knowledge on their metabolic potential. A culture-independent approach, namely the screening of metagenomic libraries of bacterial DNA from sponges, will also be used for the same goal.

Supervisor: Isabelle George       Co-supervisors: Jean-François Flot (Ecological & Evolutionary Genomics)