New Assistant Adjunct Professor

Dr. Maria Marco joins the faculty of the Department of Food Science & Technology

Maria Marco received her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley and is joining our department after spending 5 years at NIZO food research in Ede, The Netherlands. At NIZO, she was leading a four-year project examining the molecular mechanisms of probiotic function, a project funded by TI Food & Nutrition, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Maria’s research team will be exploring the host-microbe interactions of lactic acid bacteria in regard to their health promoting properties as well as the molecular ecology of these bacteria to identify their natural habitats on plants and mammalian digestive tracts.

Dr. Marco was recently awarded a prize at the 9th Symposium on Lactic Acid Bacteria for her post-doctoral work on the adaptive responses of probiotic bacteria in the mammalian gut.