Mª Gracia Benítez Eslava

Advanced Technician in Quality Analysis and Control completed at the IES Politécnico de Sevilla

For more than 12 years, I have worked at the IBVF as a Laboratory Technician in the research group led by Enrique Flores in the fields of Biology and Genetic Engineering of multicellular cyanobacteria, participating in projects such as: TRANSFER OF NITROGEN FIXED BY MARINE CYANOBACTERIA, ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND CELLULAR MECHANISMS, MOLECULAR BASES OF MULTICELLULARITY IN CYANOBACTERIA, as well as DIATOM-CYANOBACTERIA NITROGEN-FIXING ASSOCIATIONS, among others. My tasks included: organizing and maintaining the laboratory, preparing culture media for bacteria and cyanobacteria, preparing reagents and buffers, preparing microbial cultures, preparing general-use buffers and reagents, isolating biological molecules, inoculating, cultivating, and monitoring the growth of cyanobacteria, plasmid transformation in E. coli, DNA transfer to Anabaena via conjugation (genetic manipulation), PCR, cellular imaging by optical microscopy, chlorophyll determination through spectrophotometry, solid growth testing, ordering and maintaining laboratory supplies.

Currently, I work with the CPLAB group, led by Vicente Mariscal Romero, in the research line of Plant Biotechnology and Microorganisms, studying plant-cyanobacteria symbiosis in projects such as: OPTIMIZATION OF NUTRITIONAL EFFICIENCY IN THE DOÑANA RICE FIELDS THROUGH THE USE OF BENEFICIAL MICROORGANISMS, where my tasks include cultivating and maintaining plants, analyzing plant production, maintaining laboratory strains, etc.