TITLE: Postdoctoral Researcher
ACADEMIC INSTITUTION: University of Delaware

 

What is your role in Extreme 2008?
I will be studying viral assemblages that exist at the hydrothermal vents. During the cruise, I will be involved in collecting water samples from the waters surrounding the vents and preparing those samples for future laboratory analysis. After the cruise, my primary role will be to analyze the DNA sequences that we obtain through a process called metagenomics, identifying what types of genes occur within the viral communities.

What questions are you trying to answer and why?
On land and in the upper regions of the ocean, the sun (through photosynthesis) is the primary source of the energy, forming the basis of the food web. No sunlight penetrates to the ocean depths, yet at the hydrothermal vents life is extremely abundant. It has been discovered that at the vents microbes form the base of a different food chain, where inorganic compounds present in the vent water (such as the normally poisonous hydrogen sulfide) are converted into energy.

Research over the last several years has shown that marine bacteriophage play an important role in regulating microbes that act as important links in various global cycles (e.g., the nitrogen cycle). The ways in which viruses contribute to the processes forming the basis of the food web at the deep sea vents is not understood. The aim of the project is to increase the understanding of the ecology and genetic make-up of viral assemblages to provide clues as to the roles they may play.

Why is this research important? What are the benefits?
Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on our planet, yet even in the most studied environments, we have only a basic understanding of the roles viruses may play. What we do know is that, despite their small size, viruses and microbes are very important to maintaining the conditions that make life on Earth possible.  As evidence shows that recent human activity has caused important changes in the global environment, it is more important than ever that we understand exactly how global conditions are maintained.

What's your background, and what lured you into marine science/education?
I have always been fascinated with the sea.  Even as a child, my favorite part of going to the beach was not swimming or the sun, but looking at all the unusual creatures that can be found along the shore.  I also admit to a healthy dose of what some people call the “Cousteau Effect,” as watching various documentaries about the marine environment definitely contributed to my interest in studying the sea.

I did my undergraduate studies at the University of South Carolina Aiken, where I majored in cell and molecular biology and minored in computer science.  While at USC Aiken, I began doing research on nutrient cycling within Bahamian seagrass beds and on the microbiology of coral reef organisms.  I continued my coral microbiology research while earning my master’s degree in microbiology at Clemson University, where I was involved in several projects isolating and describing bacterial coral pathogens.  I received my Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology and pathobiology through the Marine Biomedicine and Environmental Sciences Center at the Medical University of South Carolina.  During my Ph.D., I worked as a molecular biologist at a NOAA National Ocean Service laboratory, using DNA-based analyses to study the complex microbial communities of tropical corals.