01
Communities and mobile genetic elements
I study bacteria, archaea, and their mobile genetic elements as interacting parts of microbial ecosystems. Genome reconstruction and gene-expression analyses help me investigate how metabolism, gene exchange, and ecological interactions shape community structure.
My work spans archaea in wetland soils and biofilms sustained by deeply sourced groundwater, connecting microbial diversity to carbon, sulfur, and hydrogen cycling. I am interested in how these interactions influence biofilm formation and the organization of microbial communities.
Microbial ecology / Mobile genetic elements / Biofilms
02
Enzyme diversity and innovation
Life has evolved for at least 3.5 billion years, generating an extraordinary diversity of proteins. Yet many remain functionally unannotated or lack an experimentally established function. I connect environmental genomics, evolutionary analysis, and biochemistry to uncover what these proteins do and how their activities support life in natural environments.
Our work on archaeal hydrogenases revealed active minimal and hybrid enzymes, expanding the known diversity of hydrogen metabolism. These discoveries motivate my broader interest in how evolution generates new enzyme architectures, reactions, and biological roles.
Protein function / Enzyme evolution / Biochemistry
03
Chemical signals in microbial defense
In the Doudna Lab, I study how RNA-guided recognition is converted into chemical signals that activate microbial defense. Our 2026 preprint shows that Cas13 cleaves tRNA to generate small nucleotide messengers that activate the membrane protein 2TMβ, triggering infected-cell death as a defense against bacteriophages.
This work reveals how RNA cleavage supplies second messengers for bacterial immunity. I combine biochemistry, bacterial genetics, and structural biology to investigate how these signals are generated, recognized, transformed, and cleared, and how cells control the duration of defense. Understanding this chemistry could provide a foundation for new molecular tools.
Defense signaling / RNA chemistry / Structural biology