I am broadly interested in the generation and maintenance of diversity within biofilms, structured communities of microbes adhered to one-another and to a surface through an extracellular matrix composed of proteins, eDNA, and polysaccharides. In particular, I am interested in how these communities, in the natural environment, can select for or against pathogenic traits.
Using Vibrio cholerae and microfluidic devices I study how genetic material can be transferred horizontally on chitin surfaces.
Using the obligate bacterial predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and Vibrio cholerae I study how biofilm formation on chitin alters community dynamics in a simple predator-prey system.
Vibrio cholerae encodes a diverse array of secreted proteins which can contribute to biofilm formation. Using chitin under fluid flow I am studying how strains carrying different subsets of proteins form biofilm on chitin.