Microbial biofilms in the environmentJulie MarescaCivil & Environmental Engineering College of Engineering

September 19, 2011

Maresca: Where I’ve been

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BA, Biology, University of Chicago 1999

PhD, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology,

Penn State University 2007

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Postdoc, Civil & Environmental

Engineering, MIT

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Maresca: Microbial biofilms

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• Most microbes in the environment are attached to surfaces

• Nutrient acquisition• Cell-cell communication• Metabolic cooperation

• Microbial biofilms on biochar particles (Smyrna, DE)

• Interspecies interactions in coastal biofilms: naturally occurring microbes colonizing an artificial substrate (Salem, MA)

• Interspecies communication on sulfur-containing minerals (Sulfolobus solfataricus)

• Microbial effects on weathered concrete (with Thomas Schumacher, CEE)

Maresca: Microbial biofilms

Maresca: Microbial biofilms

Tools we use: