Contact details

Prof. Dr. Caroline De Tender
Laboratory of Microbiology
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
Faculty of Science
Ghent University
9000 Gent, Belgium

ORCID code: 0000-0003-4804-1381
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-de-tender-83a06861
Research Group: https://www.micos.ugent.be

Short biography

Caroline De Tender is an associate professor since 2023 and is an expert in microbial communities, microplastic extraction from soil ecosystems and plant-microbe interactions. Her research focuses on the soil ecosystem and its relationship with the plant and microbial communities. She studies different stressors, including microplastics, that affect the plant-soil-microbe relationship. She has expertise in high-throughput sequencing techniques, including metabarcoding, metagenomics and microbial genomics, to study the microbial community in the soil. In 2023, she obtained an ERC Starting grant to introduce a new research line, focusing on microplastic pollution in soil ecoystems. In addition, she is actively involved in citizen science projects including the soy in 1000 gardens project, and is actively involved in science communication, particularly on national level. She currently supervises 6 PhD students and 2 postdocs. According to WoS (April 2025) she has published 39 publications, 1.515 citing articles, h-index: 20

List of selected ongoing projects

• “Microplastic contamination in agricultural soil ecosystems and the effect on soil and plant Health (MiCoS)”.
  ERc-Starting Grant
  Principal researcher
  Duration: 01-05-2023/30-04-2028

• “Soil microplastic pollution – assessing, testing and reducing the risks on soil Health”.
  Special research fund Ghent University.
  Principal researcher
  Duration: 01-01-2024/31-12-2027

• “Impact screening of plastics in soil (I-SPiG)”.
  PPS application by the Dutch government
  Collaborator and lead of WP2 and WP4
  Duration: 01-01-2025/31-12-2027

• “Fate and Impact of Plastics - from Macro to Nano - on Planetary Health (PLASTIMPACT)”.
  ENLIGHT Thematic Network ETN, European University Alliance, European Commission´s Education and Audiovisual Executive Agency. Referencia: INT-ERASMUS+23/07
  Principal researcher
  Duration: 01-11-2024/31-10-2027