We are pleased to announce the first four users awarded by MIRRI’s IS_MIRRI21 project during the 1st TransNational Access (TNA) call.
These researchers will be granted access to IS_MIRRI21 resources and facilities from July to November 2021.
Roksana Majewska – Postdoc researcher at the North-West University South Africa (South Africa)
Roksana is a marine biologist, phycologist, and natural scientist with experience in various fields of aquatic and environmental studies. She is a research fellow at the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University (South Africa) and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, where she studies tropical and extreme habitat diatoms using both morphological and molecular approaches and supports the management and development of the South African National Diatom Collection. Roksana is also a visiting scientist at the Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas in Austin (USA), and the Chair of the Africa BioGenome Project Pilot Committee.
Assunta Saide – Postdoc researcher at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Italy)
Assunta’s research interests are marine biotechnology, cellular and molecular biology with a strong expertise in mechanisms of induction of apoptosis and cellular death in human cancer cells. As a researcher of the POR project ADVISE at the SZN, she is involved in the characterisation of the biological activities of chemical compounds extracted from microalgae, on different cancer cell lines and the identification of the targeted genes. The aim is to identify new compounds that induce a specific type of cell death in cancer cells; and/or stimulates an immune response in normal cells so that they can inhibit cancer cell growth.
Agapi Doulgeraki – Assistant researcher at Institute of Technology of Agricultural Products, ELGO-DEMETER (Greece)
Dr. Agapi Doulgeraki is an Assistant Researcher (topic: Food microbiology) at the Institute of Technology of Agricultural Products of Hellenic Agricultural Organization – DIMITRA. She is specialized in food microbiology and application of molecular techniques. Specifically, her research interests focus on monitoring microorganisms and their behaviour in foods by application of standard and molecular techniques, enhancement of foods’ safety and quality (use of natural antimicrobials, fermentation, packaging, probiotics etc.), biofilm formation on biotic and abiotic surfaces and biofilm decontamination. She holds a degree in Food Science and Technology from Agricultural University of Athens and a Ph.D. in Food microbiology from Cranfield University.
Fortunato Palma Esposito – Postdoc researcher at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Italy)
Fortunato is an early career Postdoc researcher at Marine Biotechnology Department at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Naples. He obtained his PhD degree in biotechnology in 2018 followed by almost 2 years as an innovation consultant writing and managing European projects. Fortunato has a broad experience in microbiology, working with bacteria, yeast and fungi especially from marine sources. Fortunato’s scientific interests are mainly based on the sustainable exploitation of marine microbial biodiversity to identify novel bioactive compounds for biotech applications. He was a visiting student in several Biotech labs in Europe and successfully participated in others TNA programmes.
