I am a biological oceanographer with 10 years of experience in adapting single cell technologies to uncovering diversity in
complex environmental assemblages.
My PhD and postdoctoral research focus was phytoplankton and microbial roles in marine biogeochemical cycles. The primary tool I used was flow cytometry. I developed novel methods to probe specific functions of the marine community including, simultaneous carbon and nitrogen fixation measurements using CARD-FISH, stress response to temperature using ROS probes, silicification of diatoms using PDMPO as a probe among standard methods for quantification of the entire community from viruses to eukaryotes. My work at the Centre for Microbiome Research included quantification and isolation of coral holobiont, discrimination, high-throughput isolation and cultivation of gut microbes, and classification of marine phototrophs using spectral cytometry. My current focus is finding and isolating vertebrate cells in
marine systems to allow deeper understanding of individuals and populations through their individual molecular signatures.