Project Proposals
The available projects revolve around environmental adaptation of microbial communities on population and molecular scales. The main aim is to determine ecosystem tolerance and adaptation potential to warming and identify keystone species that impact robustness and resilience of cryosphere microbiomes.
Bioinformatics based project:
Composition and function of crysphere microbiomes
This project will involve analysing in-house and publicly available metagenomes to determine their taxonomic compositions and functions and identify global genomic features of cryo-microbiomes. This would be followed up with a meta-annalysis to determine trends, patterns, and emergent qualities of microbiomes across different cryosphere environments.
Laboratory based project:
Molecular adaptation strategies of alpine snow microorganisms to warming
This project will involve isolation of alpine snow microbial members, followed by genomic analysis to determine their metabolic potential in cold and warming adaptation. This will be complemented with cultivation if isolates at a gradient of temperatures and isolation of their RNA/proteins to determine the molecular changes triggered by changes in temperature. This work will be used to asses the thermal tolerances of cryospheric microorganisms. This project will also include an bioinformatic and analysis component, but will heavily rely on initial lab-work. Depending on the preference of the student, there is also an option to incorporate filed work into the project.
Combined dry-wet laboratory based project:
Alpine microbiome under pressure: Investigating the microbial community and its response to climate change.
Climate change is having a particularly strong impact over the alpine ecosystem. The harsh conditions for life make it particularly fragile. Nevertheless, most research has focused on sub-alpine regions or high-altitude plateaus and tundra. In this project, we plan to explore the microbial community found in barren mountain tops with seasonal snow cover at almost 3000m. The research project aims to elucidate the microbial community composition and its activity through a combination of -omics, with special focus on metagenomics and proteomics. Moreover, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the site are also being monitored and will be coupled with the -omics data for a broader understanding of the relationship between microbiome and GHG and its potential changes. The project requires periodic visits to the field site combined with wet, and eventually dry lab work. The low biomass of the collected samples and the current knowledge gap in the literature make this project an exciting combination of technical challenge and blue-skies research, where every development will be a direct contribution to a research field of critical relevance. The laboratory work will be performed in the ALPOLE building in Sion and the field site is located at Pointe de la Plaine Morte, Crans Montana. Data analysis could be performed off-site.
Completed Master Projects
2023
Microfluidic device for specific detection of pathogens
Mattia Lazzaroni
In conjunction with bNovate Technologies SA