Victoria Vanblaere

Curious and detail-oriented microbiologist with expertise in molecular biology, microbiology, and data analysis. Passionate about bacterial physiology, cellular mechanisms, and microbial adaptation. Motivated to pursue a PhD focused on understanding bacterial functioning and antibiotic resistance through molecular biology, genetics, and genomics approaches.

Internship at the department of Microbiology at University of Manitoba (2025-02 – Present)

Research related to the influences of soil bacteria on plant root traits, with an emphasis on microbial genomics and metagenomics.

• Perform DNA extractions, prepare DNA libraries for sequencing, and use bioinformatics to process and analyze DNA sequence information

Master thesis at the research unit of Microorganisms at University of Namur (2024-02 – 2025-01)

Study of the dynamic localization of histidine kinases and investigation of possible interaction with the elongasome in Caulobacter crescentus.

• Cloning, PCR, mating, knock-out, plasmid construction (overexpression, transcriptional and translational fusion), fluorescence microscopy, western blot, drop assay, bacterial two hybrid assay

Internship at the plant biological research unit at University of Namur (2022-07)

Physiological study of the immune response in tomato plants following injection with a COS-OGA elicitor.

• Manipulation under a hood, bacterial culture, mass spectrometry, chromatography (HPLC)

Master of Science (MSc) in Molecular Microbiology – University of Namur (2023 – 2025)

Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Biological Sciences – Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) (2018 – 2023)