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Dr. Bottacini received her Ph.D. degree in “Comparative genomics of bifidobacteria” from University College Cork with Prof. Douwe van Sinderen. Following the obtainment of her Ph.D. degree, she conducted her postdoctoral research in APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, as part of Prof. van Sinderen’s research group. In 2020, she obtained a lecturing position at Munster Technological University, where she currently lectures in the areas of Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics, and Genomics. She is also the co-director of an MSc program in Computational Biology, resulting from the joint efforts of the Biological Sciences, Computer Science, and Mathematics Departments at Munster Technological University. Dr. Bottacini’s research has contributed significantly to the expansion of knowledge about bacterial genomics and their application for the identification and selection of candidate probiotics for human and infant nutrition. Her current and past research activity is focusing on the application of comparative genomics to the study of beneficial human commensal bacteria. In particular, her research interest cover: a) comparative genomics and methylome analysis to study microbial genome diversity, horizontal gene transfer, and microbial ecology; b) integrated comparative genomics and genotype-phenotype investigation driving bacterial-host interactions in the infant's gut; c) study and characterization of the Bifidobacterium-associated virome and bacteriophage-host interactions in early life.

Microbiome, Virome, Bifidobacterium, Comparative genomics, Microbial ecology, Bacteriophages, Restriction-Modification systems, Methylome