Zampolli Jessica, PhD
Assistant Professor in Microbiology
Keywords
Biodegradation, Microbial Degradative Functions, “-omic” Approaches, Plastics, Emerging Contaminants, Microbial Biotechnology, Microbial Bioactive Compounds, Molecular Biomonitoring, Rhodococcus Genomics, Microbiota
Enviromental biodiversity and ecosystem
Microbial Diversity and Bioprospecting
Background
Jessica Zampolli is a junior assistant professor (fixed-term) in Microbiology at University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Biology and Biotechnology.
Her research interests deal with Molecular, Environmental, and Applied Microbiology.
In recent times, she attended courses about different -omics technologies focused on microbial community composition and expressed functions of single bacterial strains.
Moreover, she participated and won the Crowdfunding program of BiUniCrowd - University of Milano-Bicocca with the project Micro-Val - MICROrganismi per la VALorizzazione dei rifiuti della plastica sustained by Consorzio Corepla.
From 2021 to 2022 she had a Post Doc position for the project "Isolamento e caratterizzazione di enzimi coinvolti nella degradazione e biotrasformazione di polietilene da batteri del genere Rhodococcus" at University of Milano-Bicocca, department of Biology and Biotechnology. At the same University, she worked as a Post Doc researcher on the "Development of New Molecular Tools to detect and enhance Microbial Degradation of Contaminants in Soil Bioremediation" from 2017 to 2020.
In 2017 she obtained a PhD degree in Science at University of Milano-Bicocca with a thesis about the "Assessment of Microbial Degradative Functions for the Evaluation of the Environmental Quality of Hydrocarbon Contaminated Soils". During the PhD course, she had the opportunity to improve her research on molecular microbiology and biotechnology at Prof. PhD A. Steinbüchel head of Institut für Molekulare Mikrobiologie und Biotechnologie, at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany.
She graduated with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Milano-Bicocca in Environmental Sciences.
Research interest
The research interests of Dr. Zampolli are focused on environmental microbiology, specifically on the study of bacteria involved in the degradation of main environmental contaminants for the development of eco-sustainable processes for environmental biotechnologies. Different and integrated approaches are applied in her research: genomic, transcriptomic, genetic, phenotypic, and biochemical. To date, her research focuses on microbial enzymatic systems for the development of whole-cell systems and enzyme isolation to use in biodegradative processes for the development of industrial interest technologies. Moreover, another aspect of her research deals with the production of microbial secondary metabolites with activities of industrial interest.
Research projects
Active Projects
- PI of Crowdfunding Project: Micro-Val – MICROrganismi per la VALorizzazione di rifiuti della plastica
Finished Projects
- 2017 - 2019 Natural and Active Technologies Under Research for Health Aging (NATURHA) sustained by Regione Lombardia. Role: Post Doc researcher.
Selected articles
1. J. Zampolli, A. De Giani, A. Di Canito, G. Sello, P. Di Gennaro (2022) Identification of a Novel Biosurfactant with Antimicrobial Activity Produced by Rhodococcus opacus R7. Microorganisms 10:475. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms10020475.
2. J. Zampolli, A. Orro, A. Manconi, D. Ami, A. Natalello, P. Di Gennaro (2021) Transcriptomic analysis of Rhodococcus opacus R7 grown on polyethylene by RNA-seq. Scientific Reports. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-00525-x.
3. J. Zampolli, A. Di Canito, A. Manconi, L. Milanesi, P. Di Gennaro, A. Orro (2020) Tanscriptomic analysis of Rhodococcus opacus R7 grown on o-xylene by RNA-seq. Frontiers in Microbiology 11:1808. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01808.
4. A. Orro, M. Cappelletti, P. D’Ursi, L. Milanesi, A. Di Canito, J. Zampolli, E. Collina, F. Decorosi, C. Viti, S. Fedi, A. Presentato, D. Zannoni, P. Di Gennaro (2015) Genome and phenotype microarray analyses of Rhodococcus sp. BCP1 and R. opacus R7: genetic determinants and metabolic abilities with environmental relevance. PloS One. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0139467.
Zampolli’s Lab – #ZampolliLab_BtBs
last update April 2022