CMET researchers study microbial communities & interactions to better understand and steer ecological processes with an ultimate aim of improving and enabling biotechnological applications.
The Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology (CMET) is a part of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering at Ghent University. CMET is specialized in the study and application of mixed microbial cultures or communities. A microbial community consists of several populations, which each represent a functional biological entity and thus a diverse metabolic capacity. The assemblage of these biological entities represents -when properly organized- a powerful resource. CMET researchers focus on the optimal management of these microbial resources. We define it as Microbial Resource Management (MRM), enabling us to develop novel products and (technological) processes to improve our environment or human health in the most sustainable way.
Research domains
CMET focuses on areas like disease prevention, applied microbial ecology, host-microbe interactions, life support in space, microbial electrocatalysis, resource recovery, and water treatment.
Is it safe to re-wear underwear? Dr. Yorick Minnebo Investigates on Factcheckers
The editors of Factcheckers approached us at CMET with an intriguing question: Is it harmful to wear underwear more than once? To find out, we conducted an analysis on some worn (and quite sweaty) underwear. Our findings were fascinating! The most important result was the significant differences between the samples. Participants who performed a spinning […]
Spread of resistance to quorum sensing inhibition
Antibiotic resistance is one of the major societal challenges of this moment. When targeting viability (e.g. with antibiotics), resistant cells have a very high fitness advantage over susceptible cells and as a consequence, resistance is spreading rapidly. Because of that, the BAM group at CMET (prof. Tom Defoirdt) is investigating another approach: targeting activity. One […]