Marine Microbiomics Lab

No organism on Earth lives in isolation! This simple fact underscores the importance of interspecies interactions in sustaining all life on Earth. The Marine Microbial Ecology Lab uses a combination of microbiology, genomics, metabolomics, and field work to understand inter-kingdom interactions between prokaryotes and eukaryotes in the marine environment. We mainly study interactions between eukaryotic phytoplankton and bacteria in the oceans and their role in sustaining the marine food web and driving global biogeochemical cycles. We also examine coral interactions with its complex microbiome and the role these interactions play in maintaining healthy corals. Finally, we study how interspecies interactions between mangrove sediment bacteria present here in Abu Dhabi may lead to the rise of novel secondary metabolites that can act as useful drugs in medicine.