Principal Investigator

Prof. Raquel Peixoto

Associate Professor of Marine Science

Research Interests: Microbial Ecology, Environmental Microbiology, Marine Probiotics, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMCs), Resilience, Coral Restoration, Global Change, Microbiology

Research Scientists

Dr Gustavo Duarte

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Marine Ecology, Restoration ecology, Experimental ecology, Biological oceanography, Coral reef conservation, Climate change impacts, Coral Physiology, Probiotic microbial consortia, Microbial Ecology, Conservation strategies, Public policies

Dr. Francisca C. García

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Marine Microbial Ecology, Microbiology, Metabolic Ecology, Size Structure, Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, Trait-based Ecology, Climate Change, Ecology and Evolution

Dr. Neus Garcias-Bonet

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Marine Ecology, Microbial Ecology, Host-associated Microbiomes, Blue Carbon Ecosystems, Climate Change, Biogeochemistry

Dr. Helena Villela

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Microbial Ecology, Coral Microbiology, Marine Probiotics, Marine Symbiosis, Chemosynthesis, Applied Microbiology

Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Matteo Monti

Postdoctoral fellow

Research Interests: Microbial Ecology, Coral Microbiology, Marine Probiotics, Symbiosis

Dr. Barbara Ribeiro

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Coral Restoration, Climate change, Ocean acidification, Sponge ecology, Microbial ecology, Marine probiotics

Dr. Yusuf C. El-Khaled

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Physiological Ecology, Physiological Adaptation, Comparative Physiology, Marine Ecology, Stress Physiology, Ecophysiology

Dr. Erika Santoro

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Marine Microbiology, Marine Microbial Ecology, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Marine Probiotics, Biorremediation, Host-microbiome interactions

Ph.D. Students

Lara Kalisch

PhD Student

Research Interests: Sea turtle biology, Probiotics, sea turtle health and medicine, coral reef ecology, microbial ecology, marine conservation

Marco Casartelli

PhD Student

Research Interests: Coral Spawning, Population genetics, Coral microbiome, Millepora, Red Sea

Ali Alabyadh

PhD Student

Research Interests: Carbonate Sedimentology, Petrography, Red Sea, Coral reefs, Marine Ecology

Giovanna Sabini-Leite

PhD Student

Research Interests: Coral Microbiology, Coral ecology, Marine microbes, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMCs), Symbiont transmission, Evolution, Resilience, Climate Change, Vitamins

Laura Beenham

PhD Student

Research Interests: Microbiology, Coral ecology, Coral resilience, Marine Microbial Ecology, Functional Microbiome, Marine biology, Marine Probiotics, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMC's)

Adam Barno

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Marine Microbial Ecology, Coral Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Marine Probiotics, Epigenetics

Pedro Moreira Cardoso

PhD Student

Research Interests: Conservation Biology, Microbial Ecology, Molecular Biology, Marine Ecology, Coral Physiology

Ahmed Alsaggaf

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Applied Microbiology, Microbial Ecology, Corals, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMCs), Marine microbes, Red Sea

Master's Students

May Badeeb

Master student

Research Interests: Marine Microbiology, Bioengineering, Material science

Alexandra Rodríguez Cárdenas

Master's student

Research Interests: Biotechnology, biosensors, bioelectronics, nanomaterials

Vivian Molina

Master's student

Research Interests: Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Ecological Genomics, Marine viruses, Climate Change, Bioleaching of corals

Research Group Staff

Miguel Viegas

Research Specialist

Vera Costa

Research Specialist

Research Interests: Microbiology, Applied Microbiology, Conservation and rehabilitation, Integrated ecosystem management

Ghaida Aljuaid

Microbiologist Lab Technician

Faisal T. Gadi

Microbiologist Lab Technician

Research Interests: Microbiology, Marine biology

Joao Curdia, Ph.D.

Research Technician

Research Interests: Ecology, Zoology, Ecology of macrobenthic communities, Succession in ecology, Population dynamics of marine species, Data analysis of biological datasets, Diversity

Visitors

Martina Sirtori

VSRP student

Research Interests: Coral microbiome, Marine Microbiology, Marine Probiotics, Corals pathogens

Morgan Bennett-Smith

Underwater Media and Communications Specialist

Past members

Dr. Lilian Hill

Visiting Researcher

Research Interests: Coral reef microbial ecology, Microscopy, Cell Biology, Symbiodiniaceae

Olivia Fee

VSRP Student

Research Interests: Coral microbiome, Fungi, Dark matter

Reda Mirza

Visiting Student - Grade 9

Abdulaziz Alsuhaimi

Visitor Master's Student

Research Interests: Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology, Microbial Ecology, Molecular Biology, Biodiversity

Khulud Alghannam

Visitor Master Student

Research Interests: Microbiology, Marine Ecology, Evolution, Molecular Biology, Biodiversity

Cara rose

Visiting student

Research Interests: Marine Probiotics, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMCs), Coral Microbiology

Alexander Rodway

Research intern

Research Interests: Coral microbiome, Marine biology, Coral reef conservation, Ecosystem Functioning

Kara Rising

Visitor PhD Student

Research Interests: Probiotics, Marine environment protection, Molecular Biology, Integrated ecosystem management

Joel Tester

VSRP Intern

Research Interests: Coral Microbiology, Symbiosis, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMC's), Reef Restoration, Coral ecology

Dr Tina Keller-Costa

Visitor - Research Scientist & Invited Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Chemical ecology, Blue Biotechnology, Host-microbe interactions, Octocoral microbiomes, Metabolomics, Metagenomics, Genomics, Microbial Ecology, Aquatic biology

Lama Alghamdi

Master Student

Axel Mendoza Ortiz

Master student

Research Interests: Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Applied Microbiology, Virology

Megan Dear

Visiting Student

Research Interests: Coral Restoration, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMCs), Climate Change, Coral Microbiology, Marine Ecology

Kieran Carpenter

Visiting Master Student (VSRP)

Research Interests: Symbiosis, Coral Restoration, Probiotics, Microbiology

Mareike de Breuyn

VSRP Student

Research Interests: Marine Ecology, Conservation Biology, Reef Restoration, Artificial Reefs, Coral Physiology, Nitrogen Cycling

Malte Ostendarp

VSRP Student

Research Interests: Coral ecology, Coral Physiology, Nitrogen Cycling, Ocean warming, Resilience, Cassiopea sp.

Matilde Marques

PhD (visiting) student

Research Interests: Octocoral virome, Marine Probiotics, Host-microbiome interactions, Comparative genomics, Applied Microbiology

Fluvio Modolon da Silva

PhD (visiting) student

Research Interests: Microbial Ecology, Coral reefs, Deep-Water Coral, Genomics, Microbial Cultivation

Claudia E. L. Hill

PhD (visiting) student

Dr. Susana Carvalho

Senior ​​Research Scientist

Research Interests: Marine Ecology, marine biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, Integrated ecosystem management, Ecosystem health assessment, Conservation and rehabilitation

Dr. Phillipe Magalhães

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Microbial Ecology, Coral Microbiology, Marine Probiotics, Marine Symbiosis, Host-microbiome interactions

Vivian Bonacker

VSRP Student

Research Interests: Coral ecology, Applied Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Coral Physiology, Coral Restoration

Livia Anne Hott

VSRP Student

Research Interests: Coral reef ecology, Denitrification

Nathalia Delgadillo

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Microbial communities, Deep-sea ecology, Biotechnology, Bioremediation

Inês Goncalves Raimundo

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Marine Metagenomics, Marine Microbial Ecology, Microbial Cultivation, Functional and comparative genomics, Blue Biotechnology

Dr. Eslam Osman

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Corals Resilience, Microbial Ecology, Functional Microbiome, Corals Ecology