Anne Willems
Anne Willems is a professor at the Laboratory of Microbiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at the Faculty of Sciences of Ghent University. Her team performs research focused on environmental microbiology (aquatic and Antarctic microbiology) and plant-bacteria symbioses (including algae and micro-algae bacteria-interactions) using cultivation-based approaches (phenotypic and genotypic characterization, whole genome analysis) as well as non-cultivation based methods (amplicon sequencing, metagenomics).
Recent and ongoing marine research projects include studies of bacteria in intertidal sediments of the Scheldt estuary and their role in the nitrogen cycle, bacteria associated microalgae in industrial photobioreactors and bacteria associated with green seaweeds. Techniques used include isolation and characterization of bacteria, MALDI TOF mass spectrometry, whole genome sequence analysis and bacterial community analysis by sequence analysis of the community DNA (metagenomics).
