Sociomicrobiology

Lidija Senerovic. PhD, is a Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Sociomicrobiology Group. She received her PhD from the Humboldt University of Berlin in 2009 in the field of Infection Biology. Her research focusses on the development of innovative therapeutic strategies for bacterial and fungal chronic infections, particularly those associated with biofilms.  She works on development of small molecules that inhibit microbial virulence by targeting quorum sensing pathways using rational drug design. Through bioprospecting of a diverse collection of environmental bacteria, she seeks to identify novel quorum quenching enzymes or enzymes that specifically degrade components of the biofilm matrix. Together with her team, she explores strategies to improve enzymes’ performance by in silico engineering and/or immobilisation on different materials such as bacterial nanocellulose intended for wound dressings. Using advanced multi-omics approaches, she investigates the causative agents of chronic infections, microbe-microbe, and host–microbe interactions to improve the understanding of pathogenesis and treatment resistance in persistent clinical settings such as chronic wounds and recurrent intestinal infections. She has also been working on the development of the tools and methods for rapid diagnosis of biofilms to improve treatment outcomes and prevent chronic infections.

Her interdisciplinary research is conducted in collaboration with experts in chemistry, immunology, bioinformatics, pharmacy and clinical medicine, both from academia and industry. She has led two research and two R&D projects. The results of her scientific work have been published in numerous renowned international journals. Collaborations with industry partners have resulted in two patent applications and the development of a product that is already on the market (CandBerrol). She has supervised two master's theses and four doctoral dissertations.