Research Areas

~99% of the observed microbial diversity in the environment remain uncultured. Hence, it’s crucial to look at microbial systems as a whole to understand the underlying interactions between microbes and their physicochemical environments to be able to successfully tailor responses to environmental perturbations. Our lab develops integrated, culture-independent, laboratory and computational tools that mine this “microbial dark matter” or the “uncultivated majority” to disentangle complex microbial community level interactions and structuring.

The lab’s research interests lie at the interface of engineering, computational biology and microbial ecology. We use a combination of isotopic tracer based mass spectrometry and imaging along with ‘meta-omic’ techniques to probe ecophysiology of microbial community assemblages in their natural environment.

The overarching goals of the lab’s research is to broaden understanding of the genetic and metabolic diversity of the microorganisms to better manage ecosystem function, the value of this biodiversity for adaptation to anthropogenic perturbations and causing or preventing disease in humans.

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