Dr. Maja Kosecka-Strojek works in the field of molecular bacteriology and is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Dr. Kosecka-Strojek obtained her PhD in Biology from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow in 2017. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the construction of a database of reference sequences for all Staphylococcus species. She introduced a new next generation sequencing-based tool for species identification. During her PhD study and after receiving a degree, she continued her project at the Department of Medical Microbiology, University Medical Center of Groningen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Currently, her work focuses on genetic characterization of Gram-positive bacteria, novel diagnostics approaches, and application of next-generation sequencing in microbial species identification. Dr. Kosecka-Strojek’s laboratory group currently works on characterization of Staphylococcus strains from invasive infections in pediatric patients, development of genetic markers which can be used for targeted diagnostics, and improvement of patient therapy processes, as well as implementation of a new culture-free diagnostic approach in fast bacteria identification.