Since 1st of October 2020, Marco Galardini has been appointed to the RESIST funded Professor position for “Systems Biology of Microbial Communities” at Hannover Medical School (MHH). He heads the research group with the same name at the Institute for Molecular Bacteriology at TWINCORE.
“Just as every human being is different from the others, although we are all humans, bacterial strains inside one species can differ. If the species exist in different surroundings mutations create genetic variations that can affect more than half of their genetic content”, says Marco Galardini. He focuses on the question how this genetic differences influence the variable bacterial characteristics. This question is particularly important with regard to the pathogenicity of the bacteria and their resistance to antibiotics.
“I am interested in how these differences between the strains can affect the development of antimicrobial resistance, in particular its speed and predictability,” explains Marco Galardini. Using bioinformatics tools and molecular biology, he is trying to predict how the differences in the pathogens’ genomes will evolve.
Marco Galardini studied biotechnology and bioinformatics and holds a PhD in microbial genetics. After working as a postdoctoral researcher in Cambridge and Boston, his path now leads him to Hannover. His expertise complements the specialised portfolio of Professor Dr. Susanne Häußler’s Institute for Molecular Bacteriology, where multi-resistant pathoens and biofilm-forming bacteria are analysed. Contact: Galardini.Marco@mh-hannover.de.
Foto: © TWINCORE/Grabowski