Francesca Cucchi

I’m Francesca Cucchi, PhD student at the ATU and MI under the supervision of Luca Mirimin, Fiona Kavanagh, and Dave Clarke. I’m working within the PSP Safe Project, concerning food safety and the development of molecular tools for the detection of the toxic phytoplankton genus Alexandrium. My background is in biological science (BSc) and global change ecology (MSc).

Project Title
Molecular characterization of microalgae (Alexandrium spp) and development of novel diagnostic Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) surveillance tools to address increasing risks of paralytic shellfish poisoning events in Ireland
The PSPSafe project is a 4-years project funded by DAFM and involving a collaboration between the Marine Institute, ATU and UCD, to elucidate the causes and identifying potential upcoming impacts of a recent increase of Paralytic Shellfish Toxins (PSTs) in Irish shellfish.