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Microbiome Stress Project

The Gibbons Group Joins the Microbiome Stress Project

The lab will join researchers at Duke University, the University of New Hampshire, and Montana State University to conduct a large-scale meta-analysis of how environmental stressors impact microbial communities. Prior surveys, like the Earth and Human Microbiome Projects, have established a baseline for healthy ecosystems across the planet. The Microbiome Stress Project will focus on ecological resistance and resilience of natural microbial communities to disturbances. The meta-analysis will encompass hundreds of studies and dozens of disturbances across many different ecosystems. The Gibbons Group has developed tools and techniques for conducting case-control meta-analyses across studies, which will be applied in this project. The goal of this project is to infer the general principals underlying ecological community responses to perturbations and validate these hypotheses in controlled bioreactors at Duke University.

Recent Articles

  • Crystal Perez joins the lab

    Crystal Perez, an MD/PhD student at the University of Washington (UW) in the Molecular Engineering Program, recently joined the lab. Crystal graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. and M.S. in Biology. During her time at Stanford, she worked in David Relman’s laboratory on a project investigating arsenic’s impact on the human gut microbiome of individuals chronically exposed through groundwater. She also completed an internship in E. Peter Greenberg’s lab…

  • Jacob Cavon Joins the Lab

    Jacob Cavon, PhD student in the Molecular Engineering and Sciences program at the University of Washington, recently jointed the lab. Jacob graduated from Montana State University, Bozeman with a BS in Cell Biology and Neuroscience. During his undergraduate career and post-graduation he characterized the function of an S. pyogenes virulence factor protein and contributed to a strep throat infection mouse model in Dr. Ben Lei’s lab. Before starting graduate school,…

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    2023 Year in Review

    Throughout 2023, ISB research has been published in impactful peer-reviewed journals and our scientists have been featured in major media outlets and popular podcasts. In this 2023 Year in Review, we showcase some of our most important and interesting highlights of the year.