My research has primarily centered on microbial diversity, microbial secondary metabolites production, and searching for potential natural products and bioactive compounds for use in various fields such as agricultural and pharmaceutical, with particular emphasis on antifungal and antibacterial compounds discovery. This includes: the biodiversity of microorganisms, especially endophytic fungi from medicinal plants; fungi and rare actinomycetes in several different and unusual habitats, in particular in hypogenic environments (caves, volcanic caves, etc.), oceans (mangrove, salt marshes, wetlands, etc.) and lakes (alkaline ponds and meromictic lakes), and the useful compounds deriving from these; secondary metabolism in microorganisms such as: the biological roles of bioactive compounds in the producer strains and in the natural environment, the photochemotherapeutic potential of natural products such as medicinal plants and microorganisms.
Sicne 2015, I have been working closely with Dr. Cori Lausen of Wildlife Conservation Society Canada to find a mitigation to help save western bats from white nose syndrome, the deadly fungal infection. Later, Dr. JP Xu of McMaster Unviersity joined our team. We have now been successfully developing a bacterial probiotic cocktail that has been tested and monitored under field applications.
For information about the search for antibiotics, check out the video below.
- Antibiotics that coudl save your lives might be hidden in these caves: Bloomberg
- Inside the Search for New Antibiotics in the Depths of the Earth: Wired, UK
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For information about probiotics for white nose syndrome in bats, please see links below.