Research Interests
Past, present and future
The vaginal microbiome on maternal and infant health (present)
The vaginal microbiome has been severely understudied and those from underrepresented countries even more so. In one of my projects I investigate the vaginal microbiome and virome of pregnant people living with HIV from the DRC. I determine how specific taxa and their functions contribute to adverse birth and pregnancy outcomes in these populations underrepresented in microbiome research.
The vaginal microbiome has been severely understudied and those from underrepresented countries even more so. In one of my projects I investigate the vaginal microbiome and virome of pregnant people living with HIV from the DRC. I determine how specific taxa and their functions contribute to adverse birth and pregnancy outcomes in these populations underrepresented in microbiome research.
Host depletion to enrich for microbes and increase effective sequencing depth
(present and future)
One of the bottlenecks in human microbiome research – particularly in low microbial biomass and high host content samples (like vaginal swabs)– is that 40-99% of sequencing reads map to the human genome and this reduces sequencing depth on microbes (which we are interested in). While commercial kits exist that enrich for bacteria in clinical samples, these approaches have not been tested to enrich other microbes like viruses. I am interested in developing laboratory methods that would enrich for both eukaryotic and prokaryotic viruses.
Ocean Viromics (past)
Viruses that infect bacteria (called bacteriophages) play an important role in biogeochemical cycling as they influence bacterial communities and impact nutrient cycling of nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon via the viral shunt. Using bioinformatic methods, I ID'd ocean viruses in time series data and those were used to determine their viral dynamics and impact on nutrient cycling in subsurface oxygen maxima
Viruses that infect bacteria (called bacteriophages) play an important role in biogeochemical cycling as they influence bacterial communities and impact nutrient cycling of nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon via the viral shunt. Using bioinformatic methods, I ID'd ocean viruses in time series data and those were used to determine their viral dynamics and impact on nutrient cycling in subsurface oxygen maxima