Research Interests

My project aims to study a chitinolytic bacterium, Motilimonas Spo1_1. This bacterium was isolated from the marine sponge Hymeniacidon perlevis . It is an efficient chitin degrader that could be used to produce valuable chemicals for various applications, i.e. chitooligosaccharides (COS). My work combines transcriptomic studies with monitoring of cell biomass, chitin degradation, production of COS and organic acids over time in different growth conditions. Plus, the enzymes responsible for chitin degradation in Motilimonas Spo1_1 are being cloned in E.coli to study their activity and specificity . Another part of my works consists of co-culturing Motilimonas Spo1_1 with other bacterial species co-isolated  from the same sponge in order to understand how interspecies interactions may modulate chitin degradation by marine bacteria.