Seconded and Recruited fellows

In the context of the Microcokit Project (FP7 People-2012-IAPP Project) Anna Barra Caracciolo was seconded 3 months to NTBC (Natural Biotech) in Madrid.

Linda Medlin was seconded 11 months to LGC.

Gerardo Mengs was seconded 3 months to Rome at Water Research Institute of CNR (CNR-IRSA).

Paola Grenni (PhD in Environmental Science) is a permanent Researcher at CNR-IRSA. She has been working in water and soil microbial ecology. She is involved in national and international projects regarding ecosystem contamination and water and soil quality indicators. Experimental activity has been included the application of methods for assessing microbial abundance, biomass and diversity, including molecular methods such as Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization (FISH). Moreover, she has experience in Environmental Risk Assessment of dangerous substances.
In the context of the Microcokit Project (FP7 People-2012-IAPP Project) she was seconded 3 months at NTBC (Natural Biotech) in Madrid.

Valentina Ferrero obtained her Master Degree in Industrial Biotechnologies in 2005 and her PhD in Biochemistry in 2008 from University of Torino (Italy). She worked in a Protein Engineering Laboratory in Torino on the development of biosensors for drugs and environmental pollutants in waters. She moved then to European Commission Joint Research Centre to work on the FP7 project RADAR and the Joint Danube Survey 3 focused on chemical pollutant detection system in waters. In September 2014 she was hired by LGC to work on the MicroCoKit project.

Carlos Garbi took his PhD at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He currently is the Managing Director of Natural Biotec SL, an environmental consultant company. His current professional activity focuses on the implementation and coordination of research, innovation and development of new technologies related to the environment and biotechnology. He also works in the area of communication and dissemination of scientific and environmental issues. He was secondend 3 months at CNR-IRSA in Italy.

M. Ludovica Saccà graduated in biology in 2006, she obtained her PhD in Agro-environmental Sciences in 2010 from University of Bologna, studying the impact of emerging contaminants on water and soil microbial ecology. In 2010 she won L’Oréal-UNESCO Award For Woman in Science with a project on bioremediation strategies to reduce environmental contamination. From 2011 to 2013 she worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Complutense University of Madrid on stress responses of bacteria to nanoparticles exposure, and selection of biomarkers to monitor these responses. In 2014 she has been recruited at IRSA-CNR within the Microcokit project for developing systems to concentrate water samples to identify specific microorganisms.

Martina Di Lenola graduated in Biology in 2011. She obtained her PhD in Forestry Ecology in 2015 at Tuscia University, Viterbo (Italy), studying the role of natural microbial communities in soil remediation. She has been working for more than four years at the Water Research Institute of the National Research Council (IRSA-CNR) in Rome on the role of microbial communities in recovering contaminated soil and water ecosystems applying molecular microbial ecology methods. Since January 2016, she has been spending a secondment period at LGC (UK), working on the MicroCoKit project for the identification of quantitative Real Time PCR (qPCR) assays in order to quantify microorganisms who can be specific indicators of environmental quality state.

Rebecca Sanders has an undergraduate Masters degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from University of Oxford (UK), an MSc from University of Cambridge (UK) in Clinical Biochemistry and a PhD from Cardiff University (UK) in Nucleic Acid Metrology. She has been working for LGC (UK) for nearly nine years in the field of Nucleic Acid Metrology. Rebecca is working on secondment at the JRC on the MicroCoKit project, providing expertise in qPCR measurement.