Current Research
My current project involves an ongoing adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) experiment. The objective is to evolve a strain of bacteria, Shewanella oneidensis, that normally grows at atmospheric pressure to grow and live at 150 MPa or more. Pressures these high are thought to be found in the liquid water subsurface oceans of some of the icy moons, such as Titan. Not only will this help us understand the possibility of life evolving on these extraterrestrial worlds, but it could give us information about how life evolves under extreme conditions. The latter could be useful when we are trying to protect extraterrestrial places from Earth life on space missions.
Yellowstone Microbial Community
In 2023, I collected samples from various geothermal features at Yellowstone National Park. I am currently culturing some of the samples in the lab with the intention to investigate how the members of those communities interact with each other and whether or not being in a community will help the organisms be able to better adapt to extreme conditions not found in their natural environment.
