Julia Maresca

Julia Maresca is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). Her research focuses on environmental microbiology, exploring how microbes interact with ecosystems and engineered systems. Key projects include studying light responses in freshwater Actinobacteria, analyzing concrete-associated microbial communities for structural health diagnostics, and investigating microbial interactions with PFAS in various environments.

Research Interests

Her work bridges biochemistry and environmental science, emphasizing microbial ecology, genome editing, and bioremediation. She investigates how non-phototrophic bacteria use light as an environmental cue to regulate metabolic processes like carbohydrate transport and stress response. Concrete microbiology research includes developing microbial diagnostics for structural damage and engineering strains like Rhodococcus qinshengii for practical applications. PFAS studies examine microbial effects on solubility and transformation in soil and water systems.

Publication Trends

Recent publications highlight her expertise in genome editing, concrete microbiomes, and PFAS bioremediation. Articles emphasize RNA-Seq for gene expression, metagenomic analysis of built environments, and KBase tools for microbial genome annotation.

Education and Mentorship

She co-teaches Biochemistry Laboratory (FCH 431/531) and Biochemistry II (FCH 432/532), with plans for a new Applied Biochemistry course (FCH496/796) in 2025. She mentors graduate students and collaborates with undergraduates on genome assembly projects.

Laboratory and Collaborations

Her lab develops protocols for DNA extraction from challenging substrates like concrete and shares bioinformatics pipelines on GitHub. Recent work includes the EDGE genome-editing tool publication and NSF-funded projects on light-sensing mechanisms in Actinobacteria.