Faculty staff expands

CMET welcomes two new Professors; Ramon Ganigué and Tom Defoirdt.

Tom's research focuses on gene regulation mechanisms in bacteria in an ecological context (e.g. bacterial cell-to-cell signaling mechanisms, and sensing of and responding to host cues by pathogenic bacteria) and the development of novel technologies to manage bacterial activity (e.g. antivirulence therapy: disarming pathogens by inhibiting those mechanisms they require to infect their host).​

Ramon’s research focuses on the study of anaerobic microbial conversions in engineered environments (e.g. the metabolic behaviour of microbial communities and their individual species, their physiological response to changes in the environment and the interactions between species in the community). His main goal is to understand how to steer and harness these microbial communities for biotechnological applications, such as the production of bio-chemicals from wastes.