Our research focuses on understanding the assembly rules governing microbial communities in environmental biotechnology systems and how these influence process performance. Our projects address microbial ecology in wastewater treatment, anaerobic digestion, and engineered soils (Technosols). By combining metagenomic and cultivation-based approaches, we aim to gain deeper insight into the intracellular processes of individual microorganisms and the molecular interactions among them, including bacteria–virus relationships. This integrated approach advances our understanding of the ecology and functioning of environmentally relevant processes while contributing to the discovery of novel genes and bacterial species.
 

Lab Members

Leandro Guerrero
Adjunct Researcher CONICET

Agustín Bertone
Estudiante UNSAM
 

Publications (2021-present)

Wehrendt DP, Guerrero LD, Tobler A, Viera Farina PR, Fernández PL, Fontana P, Altina M, Pontiggia R, Behrends Kraemer F, Erijman L (2026)
Microbial community plasticity in biosolid-based technosols.
Appl Soil Ecol 222, 106985 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2026.106985

Orellana E, Zampieri G, De Bernardini N, Guerrero LD, Erijman L, Campanaro S, Treu, L (2025)
Sustainable food waste management in anaerobic digesters: Prediction of the organic load impact by metagenome-scale metabolic modeling. 
Environmental Science & Technology, 59, 6659-6672. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c11180

Kraemer FB, Wehrendt DP, Tobler A, Sainz D, Oliveri LB, Jungwirth L., … , Erijman, L (2025).
Biosolids blended with edaphic supports mimic structural and biochemical features of natural soils and foster plant biomass growth.
European Journal of Soil Biology, 124, 103709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103709

Dueholm MKD, Andersen KS, Korntved AKC et al. (2024)
MiDAS 5: Global diversity of bacteria and archaea in anaerobic digesters.
Nature Communications 15, 5361.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49641-y

Bovio-Winkler P, Guerrero LD, Erijman L, Oyarzúa P, Suárez-Ojeda ME, Cabezas A, Etchebehere C (2023)
Genome-centric metagenomic insights into the role of Chloroflexi in anammox, activated sludge and methanogenic reactors.
BMC Microbiology, 23, 45 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-023-02765-5

Dueholm MK, Nierychlo M, Andersen KS et al. (2022)
MiDAS 4: A global catalogue of full-length 16S rRNA gene sequences and taxonomy for studies of bacterial communities in wastewater treatment plants.
Nature Communication 13, 1908. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29438-7

Orellana E, Guerrero LD, Davies-Sala C, Altina M, Pontiggia RM, Erijman L (2021)
Extracellular hydrolytic potential drives microbiome shifts during anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge and food waste.
Bioresource Technology, 126102 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2021.126102

Guerrero LD, Pérez MV, Orellana E, Piuri M, Quiroga C, Erijman L (2021)
Long-run bacteria-phage coexistence dynamics under natural habitat conditions in an environmental biotechnology system.
The ISME Journal, 15, 636-648; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-00802-z


Ex Lab Members

Florencia Tesoriero.

Esteban Orellana.

Federico Ibarbalz. Institut de Biologie de l’École Normale Supérieure (IBENS, Paris)

Laura Basile. IIB-INTECH. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas

Mariana Lozada. Centro para el estudio de sistemas marinos (CESIMAR-CENPAT)

Nadia Szeinbaum. School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

Dominique Türkowsky. Helmholtz Centre for Environment Research (Leipzig, Alemania)

Silvina Rosa, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental. FCEN-UBA

Joaquín Ayarza. Industria farmacéutica

Carolina Casserly, Bona Water & WasteWater – ‎Xylem Water Solutions

Leonardo Erijman

  • Ph.D. University of Buenos Aires. Biological Chemistry Dept, FCEN, UBA. 1990.
  • Principal Researcher CONICET. 1998 – Cont.
  • Ambassador to Argentina. International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME) 2004 – 2011.
  • Adjunt Professor. Department of Physiology, Molecular and Cellular Biology “Profesor Héctor Maldonado”, FCEN, UBA. 2011 – Cont.
  • Editorial Board Member. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. (American Society for Microbiology) 2017 – Cont.