Areas of Expertise:
- Microbial physiology
- Environmental microbiology
- Environmental biotechnology
- Toxic waste clean-up using biological organisms
Research Interests:
- Physiological and genetic mechanisms of bacterial resistance to environmental toxic metals and antibiotics
- Trace metal physiology: siderophores and natural chelating agents
- Environmental Biotechnology
- Toxic Metal Bioremediation
I am conducting investigations in the bioremediation of environmental sites contaminated with toxic heavy metals.
My students and I are studying the effects of environmental mercury in various systems (soil, sphagnum bogs, salmonid gastrointestinal tracts, and two species of fish pathogens) and how this toxic metal is providing selective pressure in the evolution of mercury-resistant bacterial strains. In selecting for mercury-resistant microbial strains, the metal is also responsible for the co-selection of antibiotic-resistance determinants because genes responsible for both antibiotic- and mercury-resistance are linked genetically.
