He is currently a fixed-term Technical Collaborator (VI level) (from July 2023) within the PNRR EMBRC project Unlocking the Potential for Health and Food from the seas - EMBRC-UP. Since 2021 he has also been a PhD student in Polar Sciences at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. In 2014 he obtained a degree in Biology and Ecology of the Coastal Marine Environment at the University of Messina, with the thesis entitled Tolerance to heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls in Arctic bacteria (Continental Norway). During the preparation of his degree thesis he spent 4 months at the University of Valencia (Spain) to acquire new laboratory techniques. He has participated in several sampling activities in the Arctic, Antarctica and the Mediterranean for the collection and processing of samples for microbiological studies. In particular, the research interest is aimed at the study of microbial populations in aquatic environments (sea, freshwater and hyperhaline brine), sediments and permafrost. Among the techniques used: estimation of prokaryotic biomass by counting and morphometric and morphological analysis, through the application of microscopic techniques in epifluorescence and image analysis; analysis of the prokaryotic community using CARD-FISH and next generation sequencing; estimation of physiological profiles of prokaryotes at community level using BIOLOG Ecoplate; quantification of viable cells through the use of biomarkers (LIVE/DEAD and CTC); screening of bacteria for the ability to degrade polluting organic compounds. He is the author or co-author of approximately 25 articles in international journals.

She is graduated in Ecobiology (LM) from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and has a PhD in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology from the same university. His research activities are focused on organic contaminants (eg drugs, antibiotics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nonylphenols, bisphenol, etc) interactions with natural microorganisms. She gained experience in setting up biodegradation microcosms to evaluate both the environmental persistence of selected contaminants and their effects on natural microbial communities structure and functioning (e.g. PLFA and qPCR analyses).
Recent research activities are focused on the spread of genes that confer resistance to antibiotics (ARGs) among natural microbial communities, and the correlation between this latter with the antibiotic environmental concentrations. She also works on the development and validation of analytical methodologies (e.g. LC-MS / MS) for the determination of organic pollutants in different environmental matrices.

Scopus - Author ID: 57192521577

She obtained the Ph.D title in Environmental Sciences in 2013 from the University of Messina and spent six years as postdoctoral researcher at the University of Messina, Department CHIBIOFARAM. Since 2019, she is Researcher at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Department of Marine Biotechnology. Research activities are mainly focused on microbial ecology, specifically focused on prokaryotic diversity, bacterial bioprospecting for the research of marine natural products to be applied in the biomedical and environmental field (in temperate and polar habitats). Particular interest is paid to the association of bacteria with filter-feeding organisms and mainly oriented to the study of bioactive molecules. She has improved her laboratory skills during several stays in foreign institutions, i.e. Karlsruhe Institute of Biotechnology (Germany), and Centro de Ciências do Mar Universidade do Algarve (Portugal).
She participated to oceanographic cruises in the Mediterranean Sea and to the 34th Antarctic Campaign at the Italian Research Station Mario Zucchelli. She has competence in drafting experimental designs, formulation of research aims and profiling of plans for data collection and analysis, interpretation and presentation of statistical findings, biostatistical analyses. She attended specialized courses on microbial metagenome analysis, cultivation and new-generation molecular methods, liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry methods.
To date, she is involved in research projects on polar topics (Arctic and Antarctic microbiology). She is Topic Editorial Board Member of the open-access journals Environments, and is author or co-author of more than thirty papers in peer-reviewed journals (h-index 10, 284 citations).

Scopus - Author ID: 55619021900

Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences with a specialization in Global Change & Sustainability at Ca' Foscari University of Venezia. The thesis focused on studying the distribution of anionic bromine and iodine compounds in polar snow samples from the Svalbard islands, examining their seasonal variability and the impacts of climate change. Participation in a scientific publication titled Inorganic iodine and bromine speciation in Arctic snow at picogram-per-gram levels by IC-ICP-MS, published in the Journal of Analytical Science and Technology. Currently, she is a research fellow at the CNR-ISP, where she is conducting research on mercury and other micro-contaminants and chemical markers in air and atmospheric aerosol at the high mountain site Col Margherita, within the scope of the research project DECIPHER - Disentangling mechanisms controlling atmospheric transport and mixing processes over mountain areas at different space-and timescales.