Brook L. Nunn is a Professor in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, co-lead of NASA’s Network for Life Detection (NfoLD),\u00a0and Director of the Environmental Proteomics Cost Center at UW. Her lab’s\u00a0research uses mass spectrometry-based proteomics to study life in unusual and extreme environments, with a particular focus on complex, low-biomass, and chemically challenging samples collected from field sites such as hydrothermal systems, hypersaline environments, sea ice, and other analog settings relevant to astrobiology. She develops methods to recover and measure proteins from difficult matrices including sediments, rocks, brines, biofilms, and environmentally altered materials, with the goal of understanding how organisms function at the edge of habitability and which molecular signatures can be used to detect life. Her work connects environmental proteomics, extremophile biology, and life-detection science by asking how biology persists in complex matrices and how we can reliably recognize its signals in samples where life is sparse, stressed, or hard to measure.\u00a0 She is also an oceanographer by training (PhD in Chemical Oceanography) working on time series modeling of metaproteomic data to understand how microbiomes influence the ecosystem and how the ecosystem influences\u00a0those microbiomes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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My research interests include <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mikan, M. P., Harvey, H. R., Timmins-Schiffman, E., Riffle, M., May, D. H., Salter, I., … & Nunn, B. L. (2019). Metaproteomics reveal that rapid perturbations in organic matter prioritize functional restructuring over taxonomy in western Arctic Ocean microbiomes.<\/a> <\/strong>The ISME journal<\/a><\/em>, 1-14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Glass, J., Blanchard, J., Ranjan, P., Kretz, C.B., Nunn, B.L., Johnson, A.M., McManus, J., and Stewart., F.J. (2019). Adaptations of Atribacteria to life in methane hydrates: hot traits for cold life.<\/a><\/strong>bioRxiv<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Junge, K., Cameron, K., and Nunn, B.L. (2019). Diversity of Psychrophilic Bacteria in Sea and Glacier Ice Environments\u2014Insights Through Genomics, Metagenomics, and Proteomics Approaches. .<\/a><\/strong> In Microbial Diversity in the Genomic Era S. Das, and H.R. Dash, eds. (Academic Press), pp. 197-216.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saito, M.A., Bertrand, E.M., Duffy, M.E., Gaylord, D.A., Held, N.A., Hervey, W.J., Hettich, R.L., Jagtap, P.D., Janech, M.G., Kinkade, D.B., et al. (2019). Progress and Challenges in Ocean Metaproteomics and Proposed Best Practices for Data Sharing.<\/a><\/strong> Journal of Proteome Research 18, 1461-1476.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spencer, L.H., Horwith, M., Lowe, A.T., Venkataraman, Y.R., Timmins-Schiffman, E., Nunn, B.L., and Roberts, S.B. (2019). Pacific geoduck (Panopea generosa) resilience to natural pH variation. Comp Biochem Physiol Part D Genomics Proteomics<\/a><\/strong> 30, 91-101.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Szeinbaum, N., Nunn, B.L., Cavazos, A.R., Crowe, S.A., Stewart, F.J., DiChristina, T.J., Reinhard, C.T., and Glass, J.B. (2019). Expression of extracellular multiheme cytochromes discovered in a betaproteobacterium during Mn (III) reduction.<\/strong> <\/a>bioRxiv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tisthammer, K.H., Nunn, B.L., F.O., S., Timmins-Schiffman, E., and Richmond, R.H. (2019). Physiological and Molecular Responses Suggest Local Adaptation of the Lobe Coral Porites lobata to the Nearshore Environment. biorRxiv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n