Donat Crippa
Donat Crippa
Student / Programme Doctorate at D-USYS
Additional information
Research area
My research focuses on extrachromosomal elements (prophages, plasmids) associated with acetogenic bacteria. These bacteria have recently gained a lot of interest for several reasons: (1) they use one of the oldest carbon fixation pathways, which may link them to the origin of life (2) they play an important role in carbon cycling and microbial community dynamics in anaerobic natural ecosystems (sediments, peatlands, gastrointestinal tract), (3) they are used in industrial biotechnology for their ability to energy-efficiently produce valuable chemical compounds from waste gas (e.g., biofuel). I combine wet-lab methods including molecular microbiology and omics approaches with bioinformatics tools.