I am a microbial ecologist interested in understanding the diversity and function of microbial communities in natural or engineered systems. I received my PhD degree in Biological Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) in 1996. My research began with the study of the physiology of photosynthetic bacteria under light limited conditions and went on to the utilization of complex microbial biofilms in packed reactors for the treatment of contaminated effluents. In 2007 I became associate professor at the Department of Genetics and Microbiology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and in the last years, my investigation has focused on the application of molecular techniques for the characterization of the diversity of different microbial communities, such as marine environments or wastewater treatment systems. These methodologies include clone libraries, FISH (Fluorescence In Situ hybridization), MAR (Microautoradiography)-FISH, fingerprinting techniques such as DGGE (Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis) and high throughput sequencing technologies. Currently, I collaborate with researchers from the Department of Marine Biology and Oceanography in the Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona combining conventional isolation techniques in culture media with -omics methods (genomics, transcriptomics) for the study of microorganisms from the deep ocean.