About
Dr. Francesca Fiegna is part of the Professorship for Evolutionary Biology at ETH Zurich's Department of Environmental Systems Science, within the Institute of Integrative Biology. Her research focuses on microbial ecology, particularly bacterial social behavior, predation dynamics, and density-dependent traits under environmental stress. She investigates how ecological contexts like temperature and pH influence predator-prey relationships and microbial community structures.
Key research interests include: microbial predation reversal mechanisms, evolutionary responses to novel environments, and the role of kin discrimination in microbial social systems. Her work integrates experimental evolution, genetic analysis, and ecological modeling to understand cooperative behaviors and evolutionary hotspots in soil microbes.
Recent studies highlight her exploration of Myxococcus xanthus as a model organism, examining outer membrane exchange, kin recognition, and population-level adaptations. She also explores applications of predatory bacteria as biocontrol agents against fungal pathogens like Zymoseptoria tritici. Collaborations include funding from Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) grants, focusing on motile bacterial adaptation and predation mechanisms.
