Rodrigo Costa - Curriculum vitae summary
1) Personal data
Name: Rodrigo da Silva Costa, Ph.D.
Nationality: Portuguese and Brazilian
Mailing address:
Universidade do Algarve
Centro de Ciências do Mar (CCMar)
Ed. 7, Gabinete 2.77
Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139
Faro, Portugal
Telephone: +351 289 800 051 (ext. 7380)
Fax: +351 289 800 069
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Web site:
http://www.ccmar.ualg.pt/home/index.php?id=200
2) Academic career
2010 onwards: Invited Assistant Professor and head of the “Microbial Ecology and Evolution Research Group”. Centre
of Marine Sciences, Algarve University, Portugal.
October 2008 – December 2009: Research Associate. Centre of Marine Sciences, Algarve University, Portugal.
August 2006 – September 2008: Post-doctoral fellow. Microbial Ecology Department, Centre for Ecological and
Evolutionary Studies (CEES), University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
October 2002 – June 2006: Ph.D. degree in Life Sciences from the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany.
Thesis: “Microbial community structure and function in the rhizosphere of crop plants: a molecular study”. Supervisor:
Prof. Dr. Kornelia Smalla.
1999-2001: M.Sc. degree in Ecology from the Rio de Janeiro Federal University (UFRJ), Brazil. Thesis: Genetic
diversity and variability of bacterial communities associated with the maize rhizosphere in an arable land in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Leda Cristina Mendonça-Hagler.
1995-1998: B.Sc. degree in Biological Sciences from the Rio de Janeiro Federal University (UFRJ), Brazil.
3) Recent teaching activity
2010 onwards: Algarve University. Holds lectures on “Topics in Marine Biology” (1st year bachelor´s program),
“Techniques in Molecular and Cellular Biology” (Erasmus Mundus Masters Program), “Molecular Genetics of
Prokaryotes” and “Microbial Ecology” (Microbial and Molecular Biology Masters Program). ~ 64 h / semester.
2006-2008: Department of Microbial Ecology, CEES, University of Groningen. Lectures held on “Biodiversity and
Conservation Biology” (3rd year), “Research in Microbial Ecology” (3 rd year) “Genome Evolution” (“Top Masters”
Program) and “Diversity and Evolution” (1 st year). ~ 64 h / semester.
4) Awards
Cum laude mentioning in Bachelor’s Diploma. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Magna cum laude mentioning in Master’s Diploma. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Magna cum laude mentioning due to oral defence of Ph.D. thesis. Braunschweig University, Germany.
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5) List of ongoing projects
1. "Unlocking the bacterial diversity encrypted in the metagenomes of marine sponges"
- Role: Coordinator/ Principal Investigator.
- Financial Support: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal (Project id: PTDC/MAR/101431/2008).
- Period: January 2010 - December 2012.
- Funding: 179.732,00 €
2. "Global climate change and pollution: a synergy designed for disaster?"
- Role: Scientific Team Member.
- Financial Support: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal (Project id: PTDC/AACCLI/107916/2008).
- Period: January 2010 - December 2012.
- Funding: 177.432,00 €
3. “Waterborne seaweed metabolites as a green solution for antimicrobial therapy in aquaculture”
- Role: Scientific Team Member.
- Financial Support: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal.
- Period: June 2011 - May 2014.
- Funding: 108.680,00 €
4. “SEAWEED AD: anaerobic digestion of seaweed for biofuels”
- Role: Scientific Team Member.
- Financial Support: European commission, 7th Framework Programme for Research. Call: FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF.
Scheme: MC-IEF Intra-European Fellowships (IEF) (Project id: 274373).
Grant holder: Prof. Dr. Alastair Sutherland, Glasgow Caledonian University. Host Institution: CCMar.
- Period: September 2011 – August 2013.
Funding: 20.000,00 €.
5. “Rules of attraction: unveiling bacterial behavior in a host-driven chemical sphere”
- Role: Coordinator / Principal Investigator
- Financial support: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal and Detscher Akademischer
Austauschdienst (DAAD).
- Period: January – December 2012.
Funding: 6.000, 00 €.
6) Publications
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Author/co-author of ~ 30 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals or books;
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Author/co-author of ~ 50 communications in scientific conferences.
6.1. Selected recent publications
16. Gomes, N.C.M., Cleary, D.F.R., Calado, R., & Costa, R. Mangrove bacterial richness. Communicative &
Integrative Biology 4 (4): 419-423 (2011).
15. Van Elsas, J.D. Semenov, A.V., Costa, R., & Trevors, J.T. Survival of Escherichia coli in the environment fundamental and public health aspects. The ISME Journal 5: 173–183 (2011).
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14. Gomes, N.C.M., Flocco C., Costa, R., Junca H., Vilchez R., Pieper D.H., Krögerrecklenfort, E., Paranhos R.,
Mendonça-Hagler L.C.S. & Smalla, K. Mangrove micro-niches determine the structural and functional diversity of
enriched petroleum hydrocarbon-degrading consortia. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 74:276-290 (2010).
13. Dini-Andreote, F., Andreote, F.D., Costa, R., Taketani, R.G., Van Elsas, J.D., Araújo, W.L. Bacterial soil
community in a Brazilian sugarcane field. Plant and Soil 336: 337-349 (2010).
12. Costa, R., van Aarle, I., Mendes, R. & van Elsas, J.D. Genomics of pyrrolnitrin biosynthetic loci: evidence for
conservation and whole-operon mobility within Gram-negative bacteria. Environmental Microbiology, 11: 159175 (2009).
11. Hardoim, C.C.P., Costa, R.1, Araújo, F.V., Hajdu, E., Peixoto, R., Lins, U., Rosado, A.S., & van Elsas, J.D.
Bacterial diversity in the marine sponge Aplysina fulva in Brazilian coastal waters. Applied and Environmental
Microbiology 75: 3331-3343 (2009).
10. Van Elsas, J.D., Costa, R., Jansson, J., Sjöling, S., Bailey, M., Nalin, R., Vogel, T.M., & Van Overbeek, L. The
metagenomics of disease-suppressive soils – experiences from the METACONTROL project.
Trends in
Biotechnology 26: 591-601 (2008).
9. Van Elsas, J.D. & Costa, R. Molecular assessment of soil microbial communities with potential for plant disease
suppression. In: Z.K. Punja, S.H. De Boer and H. Sanfacon (eds.). Biotechnology and Plant Disease Management.
CABI Press Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA. (2008).
8. Costa, R., Gomes, N.C.M., Opelt, K., Berg, G., & Smalla, K. Pseudomonas community structure and antagonistic
potential in the rhizosphere: insights gained by combining phylogenetic and functional gene-based analysis.
Environmental Microbiology, 9: 2260–2273 (2007).
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7. Oros-Sichler, M., Costa, R., Heuer, H. & Smalla, K. Molecular fingerprinting techniques of microbial communities.
In: Modern Soil Microbiology II (J.D. van Elsas, J.T. Trevors and J.K. Jansson Eds.), CRC Press, Boca Raton
USA (2007).
6. Adesina, M.F. Lembke, A., Costa, R., Speksnijder, A. & Smalla, K. Screening of bacterial isolates from various
European soils for in vitro antagonistic activity towards Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum: sitedependent composition and diversity revealed. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 39: 2818–2828 (2007).
5. Costa, R., Salles, J.F., Berg, G. & Smalla, K. Cultivation-independent analysis of Pseudomonas species in soil and in
the rhizosphere of field-grown Verticillium dahliae host plants. Environmental Microbiology, 8: 2136–2149
(2006).
4. Costa, R., Götz, M., Mrotzek, N., Lottmann, J., Berg, G. & Smalla, K. Effects of site and plant species on
rhizosphere community structure as revealed by molecular analysis of microbial guilds. FEMS Microbiology
Ecology 56: 236-249 (2006).
3. Costa, R., Gomes, N.C.M., Peixoto, R.S., Rumjanek, N.G., Berg, G., Mendonça-Hagler, L.C.S. & Smalla, K.
Diversity and antagonistic potential of Pseudomonas spp. associated to the rhizosphere of maize grown in a
subtropical organic farm. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 38: 2434-2447 (2006).
2. Berg, G., Opelt, K., Schmidt, S., Zachow, C., Lottmann, J., Götz, M., Costa, R. & Smalla, K. The rhizosphere effect
on bacteria antagonistic towards the pathogenic fungus Verticillium differs depending on plant species and site.
FEMS Microbiology Ecology 56: 250-261 (2006).
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Götz, M., Gomes, N.C.M., Dratwinski, A., Costa, R., Berg, G., Peixoto, R.S., Mendonça-Hagler, L.C.S. & Smalla,
K. Survival of gfp-tagged antagonistic bacteria in the rhizosphere of tomato plants and their effects on the
indigenous bacterial community. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 56: 207-218 (2006).
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Shared first authorship
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