Research
Rock-Powered Life
We study microbes living off of chemicals supplied by water-rock reactions. Serpentinization is a geochemical process that releases hydrogen, methane, and organic molecules that could fuel microbial communities. However, the process also creates a harsh environment, with extreme pH and highly reducing conditions. To understand what microbes live in these challenging conditions, we've studied sites were serpentinization occurs around the world.
High pH Hydrothermal Vents
We study microbes living in high pH hydrothermal vents, such as the Lost City hydrothermal field (in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean) and Strytan hydrothermal vent in Iceland. Our goal is to figure out who is there, what they are eating/producing, and how these systems might relate to the origin of life on Earth.
Mining Contamination
We've started a new project looking at microbes living in the environmental revenants of abandoned mines in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. Our goal is to identify who these microbes are, what metabolisms they are capable of, and whether they are able to help detoxify mining contamination in our environment.
Antibiotic Resistance in Soils
This project is a collaboration with the PARE project at Tufts University and my Microbial Ecology course at WSU. We are using culture-based and DNA-based methods to identify and examine antibiotic-resistant bacteria living in soils around our campus and community.