Nachshon Siboni

I have completed my PhD (awarded on 2011) in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Biotechnology Engineering, in Israel, focusing on the complex microbial populations on coral-biofilm surfaces and on initial biofilm formation on artificial reefs. Later on at The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), I investigated coral larval settlement and metamorphic processes focusing on coral gene regulation, and characterized microbial populations retrieved from crustose coralline algae (CCA) which induce different levels of coral larvae recruitment. I am Research Fellow at UTS working within The Plant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster Aquatic Processes Group Ocean Microbiology Team, conducting molecular microbial ecology research on environmental aquatic samples. I specialize in utilizing and developing molecular tools to study environmental samples from the marine environment. My current projects vary: from investigating microbial dynamics in marine and estuary system, chemotaxis experiments with the toxigenic strand of Vibrio cholerae O1, to studying oyster mortality outbreaks, in order to elucidate the bacterial role in those events. My goal is to develop a new and innovative holistic approach, based on molecular biology and novel quantitative tools adopted from systems’ biology and network theory, to tease apart the key mechanisms involved in those processes. While the final aim is to generate a predictive framework that allows the oyster industry to forecast danger periods for disease, or provide environmental agencies a better understanding of the shifts in microbial environment after strong rain events as well as suggest new monitoring and early warning molecular tools.