MSc in Biotechnology Hosea Masaki at the Norwegian College of Fishery Science (NFH) will Thursday 28 May 2026 hold his trial lecture and defend his thesis for the PhD degree in Natural Science.
Trial lecture on assigned topic will take place at 10.15: "Linking Function and Diversity: Multi-Omics Perspectives on Marine Microbial Ecosystems".
Later, at 12.15 he will defend his thesis entitled: "Biodiversity and interaction studies on marine microbes - Insights from culturing and DNA metabarcoding to reveal the hidden diversity and bioactive potential of marine fungi and actinobacteria".
Professor Petter Holm at NFH will lead the disputation.
Popular Science Summary
This thesis explored the diversity of marine fungi and actinobacteria using culturing and culture-independent methods. Additionally, a robot-assisted high-throughput screening approach for detecting microbial interactions involving antibacterial activity was developed to select actinobacterial isolates for further work in a biodiscovery platform. Several fungi, some putatively new to science and others new to Norway, were isolated from sediments and algae (Fucus vesiculosus) collected in Tromsø. Chemical extracts of selected fungi were tested for their antibacterial and cytotoxic effects resulting in 70% of them showing activity against different cancer cell lines. A Bacillus bacterium isolated from the sponge Halicondria panicea was found to impact the growth of the human pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Further studies are needed to confirm whether the Bacillus inhibits the production of a Pseudomonas virulence factor, pyocyanin, and, if so, through which mechanism.
Evaluation Committee
Supervisors
Streaming
Both the trial lecture and defense and will be streamed and recorded:
Thesis
The thesis is available in Vitenarkivet