Laura Eme is an evolutionary microbiologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Rhode Island, where she leads the Early Microbial Evolution Lab. She also holds a research appointment with CNRS/Université Paris-Saclay in France, working in the “Diversité, Écologie et Évolution des Microorganismes” team.
Her research investigates the diversity, ecology, and genome evolution of microbial eukaryotes and archaea, integrating single-cell and community sequencing, and phylogenomics. She focuses on the origins of eukaryotic cell complexity, epigenomic adaptation in benthic microeukaryotes, and the evolution of symbioses in marine systems—expertise directly relevant to understanding deep-sea microbial communities during this expedition.
Dr. Eme is an active member of the International society of Evolutionary Protistology, the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, and the American Society for Microbiology, and regularly contributes to community efforts in conference organisation, open science and graduate training.
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