Novel Bio-based Technologies for Sustainable Water Management
I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Microbiological Biotechnology and Metagenomics (IMBM). I am currently involved in a project that studies whether lyso-ornithine lipid biosurfactant, due to its unique chemical structure and properties, can represent a nature-based and renewable option that could contribute to developing more sustainable biosurfactants which could be used for a number of applications including biofilm control. I am also engineering industrial Pseudomonas putida for ornithine lipid production and further establishing optimal production and downstream protocols.
I was awardeda Ph. D degree in Microbiology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in 2020. Shortly after, I did a two-year research fellowship at the Unit for Environmental Science and Management (Potchefstroom campus), North-West University, South Africa, focusing on hyper-producers for improved synthesis of biosurfactants, plant-microbes interactions, and biosurfactant formulations.