Mariel Perez Zabaleta

Food Technologist and Biotechnologist. Wide experience in R&D, fermentation, cell cultivation, bioreactors, molecular biology, bioprocess development, HPLC, GC, RT-qPCR, wastewater based-epidemiology, metabolic modelling, recombinant protein production, genetic manipulations of microbial strains, food technology, food quality control, food-process design, nutrition.

My former education is in Industrial Biotechnology (PhD), in which I worked on the recombinant production of fine chemicals and bioplastics by Escherichia coli in Gen Larsson/Ton van Maris group. I have a bachelor's degree in Food Science and a Master of Science in food technology and quality. My first postdoc research was in the production of bioplastics by mixed microbial cultures, using fatty acids from food waste in Zeynep Cetecioglu Gurol's group.

I am currently working on wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). We have monitored SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater for more than two years in Stockholm and Malmö. We are now working on developing methods for the surveillance of other pathogens and antimicrobial resistance genes.

During 2023, 50% of my time is allocated to WaterCentre@KTH, where I work with the Blue Planet conference in charge of the scientific program and organization. The rest of my time is allocated to research at the CBH School, Department of Industrial Biotechnology.