During his PhD, Constantinos worked with bacterial communities in the lab, researching how biodiversity processes, species coexistence and species metabolic interactions influence the ecological functioning of communities. He joined Micali’s Lab in April 2023, where I now work with human microbiome-associated microbes and their interactions with opportunistic pathogens.

His research deals with understanding the ecology of microbes with bimodal lifestyles (pathogenic vs. non-pathogenic) and how species interactions between commensal bacteria can influence the phenotype of pathogens and their ability to invade our microbiome. Currently, he aims to understand the mechanisms that underlie commensal and mutualistic exchange of amino acids between prototrophic and auxotrophic bacteria using microfluidics and fluorescent microscopy.