The MICROBIAL LAB uses a multidisciplinary approach to understand the dynamics of microbial communities in their environment and during natural succession with ecosystem development. We are particularly interested in the soil ecosystem as it relates to agricultural land management and pristine zones, such as sand dunes, glaciers, impact crater sites, etc. Our team works closely with specialists in botany, soil biochemistry, agronomy, statistics and bioinformatics to answer questions related to the tripartite interactions between plants, microbes and soil.

Following are the specific directions in which the lab is currently focused on:

1. Microbial community dynamics

2. Cell-cell communication aka. Quorum Sensing

3. Cultivation of the “tough-to-cultivate”

4. Genome-based microbial systematics

5. Software tools for big-data analyses

If you have an interesting question that relates to any of the areas listed above and would like to work in our team, please contact Kamlesh.