Two International Experts join our Advisory Board
A year ago, we launched a crowdfunding campaign that would enhance the multiple applications of our collection of 45.000 microorganisms. Thanks to more than €600,000 raised, the micro4all project has been greatly accelerated. The project’s goal is to build the first search engine for molecules produced by microorganisms, accessible online to subscribers, who can immediately obtain essential information for their Research and Drug Discovery projects. In the meantime, NAICONS has begun a process of integrated communication that includes a constant and active presence on two main social networks: LinkedIn and Instagram.
Today we are glad to announce that Mattia Monga and Justin van der Hooft have joined our Advisory Board. Mattia and Justine are two important men of science and technology who, we are sure, will provide their knowledge and vision for the development of the micro4all project and the growth of NAICONS.
Mattia Monga
Mattia Monga is currently an associate professor at Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. His research interests are mainly in the field of software engineering, system security, and computer science education. The final goal of his research is to improve the overall quality of software products by making them more flexible, understandable, and reliable. He teaches a “Programming in Python” course in the “Quantitative Biology” master program of his university. He has several publications behind him and his experience in informatics is what NAICONS needs to broaden its views.
Justin van der Hooft
Since January 2020, Justin van der Hooft has been an assistant professor at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. His research vision is to bridge the gap between what we can see in metabolomics profiles to what we can actually learn from them. His group is working on computational metabolomics methods and tools to improve metabolite annotation in untargeted metabolomics experiments, in particular for natural product discovery. The overarching aim of his research is to better understand the chemical language of nature, so we can stimulate beneficial interactions to create more resilient ecosystems, such as by finding the rightly composed soil microbiome that result in drought-tolerant plants. Justin has always been fascinated by the chemical diversity in nature, and this bridges nicely to what NAICONS is doing when mining for novel bioactive molecules in its large bacterial strain collection.
We are at the beginning of a growth path at the dawn of a new scientific and technological revolution in the field of microorganisms and the molecules they produce. We are confident we will continue to grow and expand our knowledge to build the best possible solutions based on molecules produced by living organisms. We believe micro4all will become a key player in this revolution.
