Domenico Franco obtained a Ph.D. in Applied Biology and Experimental Medicine at University of Messina. Now, he is a researcher SC05/I2 SSDBIO/19 (Microbiology) at the University of Messina,
Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences.
He is the author of 47 publications including articles in peer-reviewed international journals (https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=56179877500) and coinventor of three patents. He is also a member of the University Research Center for the study of Extreme Environments and Extremophiles, the Italian Society of Photobiology (SIFB) and the Italian Society of General Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnologies (SIMGBM) FEMS Society.
His primary research interests are as follows: i) interaction of microorganism with specific micro-environments; ii) nutritional stress of microorganisms for biotechnological application; iii) use of bacteriophages, as simple model for the study and understanding of biological process; iv) phage display coupled to conventional and unconventional methods for the typing of pathogenic bacteria; v) conformational mimotopes for detecting specific antibodies (Alzheimer disease).
In the field of technology transfer, the research activity aims at the development of new antimicrobial, antiadhesive and antibiofilm systems based on antibacterial agents alternative to common antibiotics and on selective targeting of pathogens and neoplastic cell.
