New research group "Systems Biology of Microbial Communities" launched at TWINCORE

On 1 October 2020, Marco Galardini established his research group "Systems Biology of Microbial Communities" at the Institute for Molecular Bacteriology at TWINCORE. He has been appointed to a W2 professorship at Hannover Medical School funded by the Cluster of Excellence RESIST.

Galardini is investigating the influence of genetic differences between different bacterial strains within the same species on the totality of their external characteristics, the so-called phenotype. This includes pathogenicity, i.e. how pathogenic a bacterial strain is, or resistance to antibiotics. Using bioinformatic tools developed in-house, Galardini tries to predict how the differences in the genetic make-up of the pathogens will evolve.

Galardini studied biotechnology and bioinformatics and holds a PhD in microbial genetics. After working as a postdoc in Cambridge and Boston, his path now leads him to Hannover. His expertise complements the professional portfolio of Susanne Häußler's institute, where multi-resistant germs and biofilm-forming bacteria are being researched.