Current Position
Since Oct 2022: Associate Professor and Principal Investigator of the Molecular Environmental Microbiology lab. Website: https://site.unibo.it/molecular-environmental-microbiology-lab/it
M.C.’s group leads research on the study of genomic, molecular, and biotechnological aspects of microbial interactions with organic and inorganic substrates/compounds and bacterial response to environmental stresses.
Scientific profiles&publications
Scopus ID: 24472574900
Web of Science ResearcherID: I-4952-2012
ORCID - http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6238-8296 ;
ResearchGate - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martina-Cappelletti-2 ;
Frontiers Loop: https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/139254/overview
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martina-cappelletti-mem-lab-2021k/?originalSubdomain=it
Fellowships and awards
2022: AlmaIdea 2022grant, UNIBO; 2013-2015: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship funded by G.
& V.Rossi Foundation; 2012-2013: Bologna University Postdoctoral Research
Fellowship; 2011: Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation and Holger &
Friederun Jannasch Scholarship in Microbial Diversity, Woods Hole,
MA, USA; 2011: Award for Excellent PhD Thesis focusing on ‘Construction
of Heterologous expression systems in Gram-positive bacteria',
UniBo; 2010-2011: Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry
(MIPAAF) Research Fellowship; 2009-2010: Marco Polo Grant for research abroad, UNIBO; 2007-2010: Italian Ministry of University and Research Graduate
Research Fellowship; 2009: G-COE Internship Program Grant, Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science; 2006: Leonardo da Vinci Programme Grant for internship abroad,UNIBO
Fundings
PRIN PNRR 2022: M.C. is the PI of the project “Novel sustainable BIOactive COATings to preserve metal surfaces in Cultural heritage and Healthcare (BIO-COATCH)" (30.11.2023-30.11-2025)
PRIN 2022: M.C. is the Co-PI of the project "Unravelling the regulatory role of epigenetics on the biosynthesis of valuable compounds in Actinobacteria for industrial purposes (MethDNActinoBio)"(14.10.2023 - 14.10.2025)
Horizon 2020 project ELECTRA (Electricity driven Low Energy and Chemical input Technology foR Accelerated bioremediation) Grant agreement ID: 826244 (Start Date: 1 Jan 2019, End Date: 31 Dec 2022): M.C. is responsible of the Dept. FaBit research unit (UNIBO Coordinator Prof. Giulio Zanaroli, Dept. DICAM) working on molecular tools and monitoring of organohalide-degrading microbial communities in contaminated sediments.
Since 2020, M.C. carries out research projects in collaboration with international companies working in the energetic field about the following topics “Monitoring microbial activities in contaminated sites” and “Study of the interactions between microorganisms and filtering systems for the remediation of contaminated matrixes”
2020-2021: Research contract for the project "Analysis of antibacterial properties of ceramic materials treated with metal functionalization with biocidal activity", to conduct microbiological analyses (methodological approaches and interpretation of the results) to apply to study antibacterial properties of ceramic tiles functionalized with metal nanoparticles
2021-2022: Research contract for the project "Microbiological analysis of concretions/patinas samples present on ancient books", to conduct microbiological analyses (methodological approaches and interpretation of the results) to characterize the microbial communities creating patinas of biodeterioration of ancient books stored in the Central Library at UNIBO aimed at defining a restoration strategy
2020: Principal Investigator of the microbiological group/work within the Project “Valutazione sistematica della efficacia delle mascherine chirurgiche per la protezione degli operatori sanitari e della popolazione (Safety Mask)” funded by Por Fesr Emilia-Romagna 2014-2020
In 2017, 2019 and 2021, M.C. was granted by Europlanet Transnational Access (TA) activity awards for projects regarding advance metagenomics and bioinformatic analyses for the characterization of microbial communities/biofilms developing in extreme environments.
Research Experience
2016-2019: Fixed term Researcher (RTDa); UNIBO, Dept. FaBit. Genomic, molecular and functional analyses of microorganisms used in the aerobic bioremediation and bioconversion of hydrocarbon contaminants".
2013-2015: Postdoctoral Research Fellow; UNIBO, Dept. FaBit. "Microbial biofilm: molecular and
functional aspects of bacteria attached to biological and/or
inorganic supports".
2014 Jul -2014 Oct: Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow; Univ. of Calgary (Canada), Dept. of Biosciences. "Biofilm development of gut microbial communities using MBEC system and chemotaxis analysis of Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes KF707"
2011-2013: Postdoctoral Research Fellow; UNIBO, Dept. FaBit. "Genomic, molecular and functional
analyses of microorganisms performing bioconversion of industrial
toxic wastes or residues".
2010-2012: Postdoctoral Research Fellow; UNIBO, Dept. FaBit. "BIO-HYDRO: Microbiological and molecular
characterization of bacteria populations in bioreactors for H2 and
CH4 production from agrozootechnical residues".
2009 Jun-2010 Apr : Visiting PhD Student ;
Univ. of Calgary (Canada), Dept. of Biosciences. "Protein
expression profiles of Rhodococcus sp. BCP1 grown on
n-alkanes as sole carbon source"
2009 Jan-2009 Mar: Visiting PhD Student ; Univ.
of Osaka (Japan), Dept. of Biotechnology. "Development of molecular
tools to characterize the role of AlkB in the metabolism of
n-alkanes by Rhodococcus sp. BCP1".
2006: Visiting Graduate Research Fellow ; Centre of
Ecology and Hydrology, Oxford (UK).
"Utilization of Raman Confocal Microscopy and DGGE technique to
characterize microbial communities isolated from soils".
Advanced Courses
2017 Nov: From Primer to Paper: Training in Biodiversity Analysis using NGS Amplicon Data, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen (Germany). Organized by Ribocon GmbH
2012 Jul: Microbial Genomics and Metagenomics Workshop, Valencia
(Spain); organized by the CSISP Genomics and Health Area and the
DoE (U. S. Department of Energy) Joint Genome Institute (JGI)
2011 Jun-Jul: Microbial Diversity Summer Course at Marine
Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, MA (USA).
Conference presentations and Conference Proceedings
M.C. has given >30 oral and poster presentations in the following National and International Conferences: European Bioremediation Conference, Conference on Phenotype MicroArray Analysis of Cells, International Symposium on Soil Metagenomics, International Biotechnology Symposium, International Symposium on Biodeterioration and Biodegradation, National Meeting of Italian Society of General Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnologies, International Conference on Speleology.
M.C. she has been invited speaker by the Bicocca University of Milan (Italy), the University of Sydney (Australia), the University of Calgary (Canada)
Publishing activities and Scientific Outreach
M.C. is Associate Editor of Microbiology Open and a member of the Editorial Board of the Canadian Journal of Microbiology and Folia Microbiologica. She is or has been Guest Ediotr of Special Issue in Frontiers in Microbiology, Life, Molecules and Microorganisms.
M.C. gave oral presentations / seminars for scientific dissemination about bacterial genetics, Rhodococcus genetics and metabolic potentials, hydrogen bio-production by hyperthermophilic bacteria, in High-schools, PhD scientific schools at the 'Accademia dei Georgofili in Florence (Mar 2014).
The research activities of M.C. has been the topic of UNIBO Magazine articles, social networks articles and TV news (Scientific TG Leonardo on RAI3; RAI1, SkyTG24):
- UNIBO Magazine: “Il batterio che diventa bio-factory di nano-cristalli ad alta conduzione elettrica (The bacterium that becomes biofactory of nanocristals with high electrical conductivity” (March 2018); Quei minerali che nascono grazie ai microbe e ci fanno guardare verso marte (Those minerals that are born thanks to microbes and make us look towards Mars) (Dec 2018));
- M.C. and her group have carried out microbiological analysis of surgical face masks during the Country's sanitary crisis. This reserach activity has been the subject of articles published on several newspapers and social networks in La Repubblica, UNIBO Magazine and services broadcast on Sky TG24, TG3, TG1 and TG5. (Https://fabit.unibo.it/it/notizie/il-fabit-test-di-validazione-delle-mascherine-chirurgiche)
Social Network
Twitter: @martycap_micro
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martina-cappelletti-24385b4
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martina_Cappelletti
