kdb26

Model microorganisms have tremendous utility, and have led to unprecedented insights into the foundational principles of biology. However, their utility is often diminished when models are used to derive insights about microbial processes in the context of their natural non-laboratory environment. Despite evidence from experimental evolution that adaptation in a constant lab environment should produce microbial specialists that have diverged from ancestral isolates evolved in a more diverse and variable environment, we have found that the archaeon H. salinarum retains the plasticity of natural isolates across gradients of total salinity and individual ion composition.  We posit that complex phenotypes like osmotolerance - those mediated by a major portion of the genome and regulatory network - are more readily maintained over decades of evolution in the lab. 

 

Epi Masters:

 

My MS in Epidemiology (Johanna Lampe, FHCRC) evaluated the association between gut microbial community structure and dietary intake in a cohort of 120 healthy women. Data used were nutrient intake data and Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis of fecal samples. Using ecological community analyses as well as multiple linear regression, we found that high fiber consumption is associated with a unique gut community profile.

 

 

Public Scholarship: 

 

Systems Biology and the Brain:  http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2013/04/10/lighting-the-way-to-understanding-of-the-brain/

Seattle Times highlight: http://blog.nwjobs.com/careercenter/microbiologist_karlyn_beers_cool_job.html

Crowdsourced disease surveillance startup: http://isbmolecularme.com/isb-at-startup-weekend/