MissMaria Portela

My research investigates the responsiveness of soil spore communities at the single-cell level, using novel microfluidics devices which allow for high-resolution imaging of cells trapped within dynamically controlled microenvironments over time. I am particularly interested in investigating how microbial interactions and environmental factors shape environmental strains' germination and sporulation responses and exploring how this could be manipulated for potential bioremediation and sustainable agriculture applications.

A focus of my work so far has been to increase the throughput of spore-on-a-chip devices by developing a new device fabrication method which allows multiplexing devices to study several samples at once. I have also been working on a systematic comparison of spore purification methods, and on small improvements to our device fabrication processes.

If you have a potential collaboration in mind, I would love to hear from you!