Dr. Andrea Sass
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Dr. Andrea Sass Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Microbiology (LPM)
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Andrea Sass graduated from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, with a degree in biology in 1997. She obtained her PhD in microbiology in 2001 with a thesis on sulfate-reducing bacteria (title: "Microbial communities at oxic-anoxic interfaces") at the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment in Oldenburg, Germany.
She then worked at University of Essex, UK studying deep-sea hypersaline anoxic basins of the Mediterranean Sea, aiming at identifying of new organisms and proteins with potential biotechnological applications and of industrial interest. Later she worked at Cardiff University, UK, on transcriptomics of Burkholderia sp, highly antimicrobial-resistant opportunistic pathogens problematic for individuals with cystic fibrosis. There, she investigated gene expression under antibiotic stress to find new strategies for antibiotic therapy.Since 2012 she works as a postdoc at the LPM lab, initially funded by a Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) Interuniversity Attraction poles project. The project aims at elucidating the regulatory mechanisms behind key developmental processes in microorganisms, such as formation of biofilms and of antimicrobial-tolerant persister cells. In the course of this research , she identified new regulatory elements in Burkholderia cenocepacia, called smal RNAs, with a role in regulating central metabolic processes and investigated the evolutionary adaptation of B cenocepacia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to growth in bioflims. Future research will focus further on the evolution of biofilm growth and of antimicrobial resistance mechanisms in these bacteria, with the aim of finding better treatments for infections.