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I am a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.
I broadly investigate the movement of essential compounds within and across a variety of ecosystems, and am particularly interested in the roles microbes play in the synthesis and trophic transfer of such compounds. This line of inquiry has led to novel discoveries on topics ranging from the mammalian gut microbiome's role in host protein metabolism to microbial biofilm and macroinvertebrate feeding dynamics in submerged leaf litter in an arid river. Most of my work to date has utilized the stable isotope analysis of individual amino acids combined with 16S and 18S rRNA gene sequencing. I am currently developing sampling and analysis protocols to characterize the metagenomes and metaproteomes of atmospheric microbial assemblages. My research team (PIs: Trembath-Reichert, Bradley, Goordial, Greening) and I aim to answer the question: Is the atmosphere a living, breathing ecosystem? |