- Books
“Geomicrobiology: Natural and anthropogenic settings“, Lucian Staicu and Larry Barton (eds), Springer, 2024 (link)
- Academic journals
FEMS Microbiology Ecology (2024-2025)
Thematic Issue: “Microbial electron transport” (link)
Guest Editors: Lucian Staicu (University of Warsaw, Poland) and Catarina Paquete (NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal)
FEMS Microbiology Ecology invites submissions to an upcoming thematic issue on microbial electron transport. This thematic issue focuses on microbial electron transfer pathways, with an emphasis on the ecology of anaerobic respiration and electroactive microorganisms. Microbes utilize electrons to generate cellular energy in an electrochemical process analogous to the flow of electrical current in electrical networks. In this process, the electrons released from the oxidation of organic and inorganic compounds or chemical elements (electron donors) are conveyed via electron transfer pathways to organic and inorganic compounds or chemical elements, which become reduced (terminal electron acceptors). This flow of electrons is accompanied by the production of the precious and energy-dense ATP molecules. Different couples of electron donors and acceptors provide different amounts of cellular energy and microorganisms have specialized in exploiting them, thus filling ecological niches in nature and gaining competitive advantages over other microbial groups in different environments. These transformations play an essential role in the biogeochemical cycles of elements in nature and in driving numerous biotechnological processes. Our knowledge of extracellular electron transfer processes is still limited, requiring interdisciplinary expertise in microbiology, molecular biology, and biochemistry to broaden our understanding in this area.
Topics of interest for this thematic issue include bioelectrochemical systems, anaerobic bioreactors, biocorrosion, sediments/anoxic environments, biogeochemical cycling, and anaerobic respiration based on diverse electron acceptors/donors. FEMS Microbiology Ecology will consider full length Research Papers or Mini-reviews/Perspectives. There is no maximum length for papers, but the length should be justified by the content and authors are urged to be concise.
Geo-Bio Interfaces (2023-2024)
Special issue: “Microbial biomineralization” (link)
Guest Editors: Lucian Staicu (University of Warsaw, Poland), Juan Liu (Peking University, Beijing, China), Julie Cosmidis (University of Oxford, UK) and Jonathan Lloyd (University of Manchester, UK)
Microbial biomineralization is attracting the interest of both fundamental- and applied-oriented researchers due to its great potential. While some biominerals produced by microorganisms have a well-understood biological function (e.g. magnetosomes, polyphosphates, S0), other biominerals including Fe minerals, Se0 or carbonates remain poorly understood from an evolutionary perspective. Increased attention, however, keeps unrevealing the complex relation of microorganisms with biominerals in natural and anthropogenic settings. From an applied point of view, biominerals may contribute to the recovery of critical resources from waste streams by using high-affinity and high-selectivity microbial enzymatic systems. This approach may overcome the current limits of the physical-chemical technologies. A growing number of studies attempts to contribute to accelerating the transition from the obsolete linear economy model to a circular one focused on the recovery of energy and materials from the production cycles.
The main goal of this collection is to focus on the fundamental and applied progress in microbial biomineralization, inviting contributions based on multidisciplinary studies and covering different research aspects such as:
- Biominerals resulting from microbial respiratory and detoxification processes;
- The importance of microbial biomineralization in the context of environmental depollution;
- The recovery of high value biominerals from secondary/waste resources such as industrial streams;
- The role and mechanisms of biomineralization on natural biogeochemical cycles;
- Biomineralization-inspired methods for medical applications, e.g. natural or synthetic bone mimetic materials or nanovaccine biomineralization
Frontiers in Microbiology (2021)
Special issue: “Microbial Biominerals: Towards New Functions and Resource Recovery” (link)
Guest Editors: Lucian Staicu (University of Warsaw, Poland), Eric van Hullebusch (IPGP, France) and Christopher Ackerson (Colorado State University, USA)
The present Research Topic on “Microbial biominerals – towards new functions and resource recovery” aims to assemble contributions from scientists working on geomicrobiology, biogeochemistry, environmental microbiology and microbial biotechnology. We encourage authors to contribute research articles that are interdisciplinary, including original research, methods, reviews and mini-reviews, as well as opinion articles. Broadly, we favour contributions covering the following areas of research:
– Unraveling new functions of biominerals in bacteria
– Elucidating novels aspects of the biomineralization process
– Molecular mechanisms of biomineralization and bio-reduction of metals/metalloids
– Role of biominerals in anthropogenic settings
– Use of biominerals in decontaminating environmental pollution associated with metals
– Recovery of biominerals with industrial relevance
FEMS Microbiology Ecology (2020)
Special issue: “Microbes vs. Metals: Harvest and Recycle” (link)
Guest Editors: Lucian Staicu (University of Warsaw, Poland) and John F. Stolz (Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA)
FEMS Microbiology Ecology invites submissions to a Thematic Issue on microbes and metals. This Thematic Issue focuses on the complex relationship between microbes and metals/metalloids in the context of circular economy, a paradigm shift that emphasizes the recovery and the reuse of the raw materials employed in the production cycles.
Geomicrobiology 