Estefanía Cordisco

Dr. Estefanía Cordisco completed her Master's degree in Biotechnology and later obtained a PhD in Biological Sciences at National University of Rosario, Argentina. Her doctoral research was conducted in the area of Pharmacognosy, where she studied the antifungal activity of plant extracts against human pathogenic fungi.

Afterwards, she carried out a postdoctoral fellowship at IBR-CONICET, Argentina, where she gained experience in molecular biology techniques and protein purification. She is currently continuing her postdoctoral research at the Antimicrobial Product Bioprospecting Laboratory at National University of Rosario, where she works on plant–fungus interactions. In addition, she collaborates with prof. Maria Rosa Marano´s group at IBR-CONICET.

During her secondment at BioAtlantis, she contributes to a collaborative project focused on the development and evaluation of dsRNA-based strategies targeting essential genes in Botrytis cinerea, an important fungal pathogen affecting crops. Using RNAi-mediated gene silencing approaches, the project aims to interfere with fungal growth and propagation as a potential antifungal strategy. The work includes in vitro and leaf-based assays to evaluate the antifungal effectiveness of the dsRNAs, as well as the development of nanoencapsulation strategies to improve dsRNA stability and delivery.