Last week, the number of IFL employees who have completed a doctoral degree increased, but then Sigrún Guðmundsdóttir, a biologist at IFL, defended her doctoral dissertation "Listeria monocytogenes, from humans, food and food processing plants in Iceland – Molecular typing, adhesion and virulence testing. ”
The doctoral defense took place on 16 June in the Celebration Hall of the University of Iceland. Opponents were dr. Bjarnheiður Guðmundsdóttir from the University of Iceland and dr. Marie-Louise Danielsson-Tham, Professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU.
Sigrún's dissertation deals with research on the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes in human beings, food and food processing in Iceland. Audits were carried out on processing houses that produce smoked salmon and boiled shrimp and the bacteria were isolated. L. monocytogenes The isolated strains were typed by a molecular method called pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and compared. Everyone L. monocytogenes strains isolated from humans in the years 1978-2000 were also typed and compared with strains isolated from food processing plants. In addition, the adhesion and infectivity of selected strains were examined.
The research took place at IFL. Sigrún's supervisors were Már Kristjánsson, an infectious disease doctor, and Dr. Karl G. Kristinsson Professor at the University of Iceland. The doctoral committee included Dr. Ágústa Guðmundsdóttir Professor at the University of Iceland, Dr. Dr. Haraldur Briem, Dr. Hjörleifur Einarsson professor at the University of Akureyri and Dr. Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir, director of the Fisheries Research Institute.
Sigrún Guðmundsdóttir was born in 1966. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from MR in 1986, a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Iceland in 1991 and an MS degree from Heriott-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland in 1992. She has worked as a specialist at IFL since 1995 and began her doctoral studies. his work there in the year 2000.