I am interested in all things related to symbiosis, microbial physiology, and biogeochemistry. Luckily, these interests converge in my study organism(s), the deep-sea hydrothermal vent tubeworm Riftia pachyptila and its sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophic endosymbiont. These two organisms live together at hydrothermal vents in the East Pacific Rise. Amazingly, these worms survive without needing to consume or digest any food. Instead, they provide vent chemicals to their microbial symbionts via their specialized gill-like plume and their vascular system. The symbionts use these vent chemicals to “fix” carbon, providing the host with all the organic carbon it needs for growth and reproduction. Using live animal incubations under conditions that mimic the vent environment, I investigate the metabolic responses of both the host and the symbiont to changing environmental conditions.
While I am not working, I enjoy the usual: brutal technical death metal, travel, good company, and unlike the worms I study…I love to consume food.
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