ABOUT Carolina

I obtained a BSc in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics in 2001 from University of California, Los Angeles where I started my research career studying simian virus 40 viral capsid protein interactions. Later, I obtained a MSc in Biology from California State University, Los Angeles where I focused on studying the microbial diversity of soils with high carbon dioxide emissions . In 2011 I obtained a PhD from University of California, Santa Cruz. My thesis focused on understanding the role that multi-heme cytochromes play in mediating iron and arsenic reduction using the model bacterium, Shewanella ANA-3. As a post doctoral researcher, I studied iron-reducing microorganisms in marine sediments at the University of Bremen, Germany. For my second post doc I studied copper acquisition by the archaeon Nitrososphaera viennensis at  University of Vienna, Austria.  Since 2020,  I am at The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) as a research scientist where I helped to develop a microbial battery. Currently, I am cultivating fungi in food waste for fungal protein production.