Microbiology

$1.86 million NIH Grant Expands Andrew Monteith’s Immunology Research

by

$1.86 million NIH Grant Expands Andrew Monteith’s Immunology Research

Profile

A nearly $1.86 million National Institutes of Health grant will allow Andrew Monteith to further study how metabolic processes affect the ways certain white blood cells fight pathogens.

The Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) is the first to Monteith, an assistant professor since January 2023 in the Department of Microbiology with a joint appointment to the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

Monteith’s work centers on neutrophils, the backbone of the innate immune response to infection. Although they possess an arsenal of antimicrobial processes to combat invading pathogens, neutrophils also cause inflammation, requiring a delicate balance to limit tissue damage while clearing pathogens.

“The goal of this proposal is to decipher how metabolic processes feed into regulating neutrophil function (immunometabolism) and to understand how comorbidities like diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune disease render neutrophils less effective at combating infection,” said Monteith.

His previous work showed mitochondria within neutrophils dictate whether they release neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in response to bacteria. NETosis is the release of a meshwork of the neutrophil’s chromosomal DNA studded with antimicrobial proteins to entrap and kill pathogens, he explained. 

Mitochondria are typically seen as the “powerhouse of the cell,” but neutrophils derive nearly all their energy from other metabolic processes. Monteith proposes that mitochondria in neutrophils evolved to detect metabolic changes and dictate how neutrophils should respond during infection. 

His research program will use cutting-edge technologies like chimeric immune cell editing (CHIME) to link the pathways that dictate how the neutrophils decide when to cast NETs and how diseases like diabetes and lupus interfere with these signals, causing aberrant inflammation.

The MIRA funding extends through June 2029. “I hope my research program can evolve into other areas of neutrophil immunometabolism, including understanding how diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune diseases impact neutrophil formation in the bone marrow (hematopoiesis), neutrophil persistence within tissues and at the sites of infection, and other inflammatory processes,” said Monteith.

Staff in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Office of Research and Creative Activity helped Monteith with the application budget and other documents before and after his proposal was scored.

Monteith’s interest in immune cells began in middle school, when his mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease.

“As I progressed through my undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral training, I was fascinated by how each immune cell played a very specific role and how they worked together to perform a functional immune response,” he said. “Better than 99 percent of the time, the immune response does its job, but occasionally something breaks and disease happens. I was most interested in understanding the mechanisms of these negative outcomes and strategies to swing the battle back in favor of the immune response.”

During NETosis, neutrophils, shown in red, release neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), in blue, to entrap and kill bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, shown in green.  (The image is from Monteith et al, Science Advances, 2021: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abj2101?rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed&url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org)

$1.82 million NIH Grant Funding Lindsey Burcham’s Women’s Health Research

by

$1.82 million NIH Grant Funding Lindsey Burcham’s Women’s Health Research

Profile

by Amy Beth Miller

With a $1.82 million National Institutes of Health grant, Assistant Professor Lindsey Burcham is leading interdisciplinary research on the vaginal microbiome, which can affect maternal, fetal, and pediatric health.

“We are incorporating techniques in microbial genetics/molecular biology, analytical chemistry, and in vitro and in vivo models to learn more about how microbes persist in the vaginal mucosa,” Burcham explained.

“This work will allow us to learn more about the availability of micronutrients in the vaginal tract and understand how vaginal microbes sense nutrient availability, respond to nutrient fluctuations, and share these nutrients within the community,” she said.

The five-year Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) began in 2023 and will run until June 2028. 

Cultures and Computer Models

Burcham also is using computer simulations, or in silico models, in collaboration with UT microbiology Assistant Professor Zach Burcham to predict metabolite exchange between vaginal microbes.

“These models allow us to develop testable hypotheses to understand more about how microbes may interact with each other and behave in the host,” Lindsey Burcham said.

The researchers also will use synthetic communities, or controlled co-cultures of microbes, to study microbial interactions and to understand how individual microbes may impact the overall function of the microbial community.

Foundations for Exploration 

The MIRA funding provides flexibility for investigators to be creative and work toward big-picture questions, Lindsey Burcham said. “The work outlined here will set the foundation for understanding more about the vaginal environment and microbe-microbe interactions, but I envision this is a starting point. We have already started some exciting new projects investigating other environmental factors within the vaginal tract, and we will go where the data take us.”

She has helped to assemble a collaborative “bench-to-bedside” research team including Zach Burcham and physicians Kim Fortner, Callie Reeder, and Logan Riley, as well as Associate Professor Jill Maples from the University of Tennessee Medical Center’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Lindsey Burcham has been curious about microbes and motivated to understand how they work since she was an undergraduate student, and her personal life influenced her research interests. 

“My own pregnancies fueled my curiosity for understanding the vaginal tract and the impact of microbes on vaginal health,” she said. “Now as the leader of a research team, I am excited to be able to use my lab and resources to promote women’s health research and to normalize the discussion around vaginal health.”

Research and Mentorship: Frank May Supported as an Emerging Scholar

by

Research and Mentorship: Frank May Supported as an Emerging Scholar

Profile

by Randall Brown

Microbiology PhD student Frank May earned support as an SEC Emerging Scholar from the University of Tennessee Graduate School for the 2024–2025 academic year. This program provides $25,000 in fellowship support plus professional development, networking, and mentoring for chosen students in their final year of doctoral work.

As one of the three UT PhD students supported by this program for the year, May will also receive travel support to attend professional conferences.

“I would like to congratulate Frank May on this important award, which sends a positive message about microbiology and the natural sciences at UT,” said Professor Kate Jones, dean, Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences. “His excellence in research, teaching, and outreach positions him to be a future leader in his chosen field.”

The financial support of this fellowship will give May more opportunity to focus on research as he completes his PhD program.

“This will enable me to spend the majority of my time working in the lab, both performing my own experiments and mentoring undergraduate students in conducting theirs,” said May.

Professor Heidi Goodrich-Blair, head of the Department of Microbiology, praises May’s dedication to scientific discovery and discourse and to student classroom and research success.

“He is a talented researcher who is untangling the complex relationships among bacterial viruses and plasmids and the cells they infect, and the higher order impact (e.g., on ecosystems) of these relationships,” said Goodrich-Blair. “His findings will have far-reaching ramifications because such impacts are ubiquitous among all cellular life on Earth.”

May’s research seeks to understand how mobile bacterial DNA alters the ability of bacteriophage—viruses that infect bacteria—to infect their hosts.

“The model organism we use is from the marine environment, giving us a better understanding of the impact of these mobile pieces of DNA, called plasmids, on this environment,” said May. “Additionally, these findings can also be extrapolated further to help us identify and understand bacterial defense strategies to viral infection.”

Goodrich-Blair also notes May’s mentorship of numerous undergraduates in independent research and his enthusiastic engagement in academic and community outreach and in organizing and participating in departmental activities.

“It cannot be understated how influential May has been on departmental committees and in representing his fellow graduate students on important issues,” she said.

May will use the support to pair outreach and professional development to represent UT microbiology at academic conferences—and return with fresh perspectives for the Vols he mentors.

“This award will assist me in attending the American Society for Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators and the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Students paired conferences,” he said. “These meetings highlight new and evolving practices that better engage undergraduate students in an inclusive and equitable manner. This opportunity will expose me to new strategies that will help me grow as a biology educator to better serve future students.”

Steven Wilhelm & Brittany Zepernick Published in ‘The Conversation’

by

Steven Wilhelm & Brittany Zepernick Published in ‘The Conversation’

Profile

Losing winter ice is changing the Great Lakes food web – here’s how light is shaping life underwater

Ice on Lake Erie provides winter light for algae thriving below. Sue Thompson, CC BY-ND
Steven Wilhelm, University of Tennessee; Brittany Zepernick, University of Tennessee, and Robert Michael McKay, University of Windsor

Winters on the Great Lakes are harsh – so much so that the scientists who work there often focus on the summer months, when tiny microbes at the base of the food chain were thought to be most productive.

However, emerging research is changing our understanding of these winter ecosystems and shining a light on a vibrant world of winter activity just below the ice.

Scientists discovered in the early 2000s that communities of diatoms – tiny photosynthesizing algae – were thriving in the light under the wind-swept lake ice. But, it turns out, that was only part of the story.

As the Great Lakes’ winter ice disappears – it hit record lows in the winter of 2023-24 – new analyses show that some diatoms appear to have a different way to create energy and survive in the dark, turbid ice-free water until summer.

A closeup of a sheet of ice with algae in it.
A thin slice of Lake Erie ice collected by a scientist has diatom algae growing on the bottom. Steven Wilhelm

These microbes are crucial to the Great Lakes’ health. They clean the water of pollutants and are the first step in the complex food web that supports a fishery that powers part of a regional economy. Changes here can have widespread effects on the lakes’ ecology and direct economic effects on surrounding communities.

Oozing up from the ice

Interest in life under the ice erupted in 2007, when an international team of scientists onboard a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker noticed something unusual as the ship worked its way through the Lake Erie ice.

As the ice broke, dark brown water oozed up from the lake. It was teeming with diatoms.

There had been sporadic studies of the winter microbes in the past, but limnologists – scientists who study lakes – didn’t have the tools to fully understand the microbes’ behavior until recently.

Diatom algae lines cracks where the ice has broken behind the ship.
Algae oozes up through the ice as the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Griffon makes a path in February 2008. Steven Wilhelm

For the past five years, the Joint Genome Institute of the U.S. Department of Energy has supported a molecular biology project that sequenced the RNA of all the microorganisms from samples collected from Lake Erie to address how these organisms survived winter months and might adapt, or not, to future climate scenarios. New observations about how diatoms may be using light are now emerging from this effort.

Using proteins common in animals’ eyes

Normally we think of diatoms as organisms that use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into living material by photosynthesis. They’re pervasive in summer across the Great Lakes, where they help feed the lakes’ multibillion-dollar sport and commercial fisheries.

During winter, diatoms can create energy from the light that filters through the wind-swept ice. However, when the ice is not present in winter, the diatoms are mixed into lake water that can, at times, be best described as chocolate milk. Light penetrates poorly through this murky water, and the diatoms get less of the specific wavelengths of light that drive photosynthesis.

A close up of a diatom. It looks like eight arms going out from a center.
A highly magnified Asterionella formosa diatom, common in the Great Lakes. Mosbo6 via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA
In a fluorescent image on black, parts of the diatom are active
A fluorescent micrograph of an Asterionella formosa shows new silica (blue) in the diatom’s frustule, equivalent to a skeleton, and chlorophyll that can drive photosynthesis in its chloroplasts (red). Together, they suggest that cells like this are actively growing in ice. Brittany Zepernick

We collected samples in the winter of 2019-2020 to compare how diatom communities in open waters differed from those that live under ice. We were surprised that when ice wasn’t present, some diatoms were using a different form of energy acquisition – driven by a pigment called rhodopsin.

Rhodopsins are light-responsive proteins that are perhaps best known as a key component of the eyes of animals. In marine systems, it was shown in 2001 that these proteins are involved in generating energy in bacterial cells, specifically producing adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. ATP is a chemical that organisms use as a power supply for many cellular processes, leading to its nickname as the “molecular currency” of living cells.

It now seems that some Lake Erie diatoms use this energy generation mechanism to augment light-limited photosynthesis in ice-free winter months.

Differences in the two processes may be important: Photosynthesis helps cells fix carbon to produce new biomass as well as cellular energy in the form of ATP. With rhodopsins, while ATP is produced, there is no direct carbon fixation.

This means that cells can likely persist but not grow in these murky waters. But in biology, survival is everything: If an organism’s competitors do not survive harsh conditions but the organism does, there will be more nutrients when conditions improve. To this end, the rhodopsins in these diatoms appear to be as much a survival mechanism and an opportunity to persist in murky, ice-free winter conditions.

Watching lake life evolve as the climate changes

As we move into a warmer climate and ice-free era for Lake Erie and other Northern temperate lakes, this data suggests that, over time, the diatoms that thrived in ice-covered lakes may be replaced by diatoms with rhodopsins in winter months.

The consequences of this change are potentially manifold: Small changes at the base of the food web can affect fisheries. Moreover, some diatoms are known to produce compounds that are toxic to wildlife and humans.

We have only guesses at this point as to how changes in algal species will alter fisheries, tourism and coastal resource management in the long run. How algal communities change over time is a response to many drivers, and light is just one. But having the chance to watch this change from the beginning creates a unique opportunity to understand the effect of a warming climate on the Great Lakes and similar lakes around the world.The Conversation

Steven Wilhelm, Professor of Microbiology, University of Tennessee; Brittany Zepernick, Postdoctoral Researcher in Microbiology, University of Tennessee, and Robert Michael McKay, Director and Professor, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

UT Faculty Join New $6.5 Million Grant to Study Climate Links Between Algal Blooms and Human Health

by

UT Faculty Join New $6.5 Million Grant to Study Climate Links Between Algal Blooms and Human Health

Profile

Faculty in the University of Tennessee Department of Microbiology are part of a new $6.5 million, five-year federal grant to establish a virtual center for the study of links between climate change, harmful algal blooms, and human health.

Increased precipitation, more powerful storms, and warming Great Lakes waters all encourage the proliferation of harmful algal blooms composed of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. These microorganisms can produce toxins harmful to humans, pets, and wildlife.

Though the pea-green summer blooms in western Lake Erie are the best-known in the region, cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms, or cHABs, now occur in all five Great Lakes and in fresh waters around the US. These blooms can increase water-treatment costs for local governments and harm vital summer economies in communities that enjoying fishing, swimming, and boating. In the Knoxville area earlier this year, a cHAB of Planktothrix rubescens (“pink algae”) in Meads Quarry at Ijams Nature Center closed swimming and other activity for a month.

Student researchers collect water samples from a cyanobacterial harmful algal bloom in western Lake Erie as part of a project to study the effect of environmental conditions on toxin production by cyanobacteria. Photo by McKenzie Powers

“The University of Tennessee has a 25-plus year history of contributing to research on the security of our water supplies with respect to harmful algal blooms, with the Great Lakes being a major focus,” noted Steven Wilhelm, the Kenneth and Blaire Mossman Professor of Microbiology and one of the project’s leaders.

The UT team, including Wilhelm and David Talmy, assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology, will focus on the effects of a changing climate and identify new players in the biological problems the lake is having. To understand the drivers of toxic algal bloom events, they previously collaborated with researchers in Michigan and Berlin, Germany, on the development of mathematical models that predict toxin production by cells, and how some of the proposed abatement methods may have unintended consequences.

Understanding best abatement practices and projecting the long-term effects of a changing climate—as well as the disruptive storms that go with it—are a major goal of this research. Participants will work across four collective projects to enable an assessment of the human health risks of cHAB toxins. These complementary projects seek to determine how climate change affects cHABs and how cHABs impact human health.

This virtual center was founded at Bowling Green State University in 2018 with funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Following the retirement of founding director Professor George Bullerjahn at BGSU, the center’s administrative home moved to Ann Arbor with renewed funding from the two federal agencies under the directorship of University of Michigan (UM) Professor Gregory Dick.

The center maintains core projects as it evolves to pursue new directions informed by more than 70 research papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals by center-funded scientists since 2018. In addition, center-funded researchers will develop new technologies for advanced monitoring and forecasting of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms in collaboration with colleagues at NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research laboratory and the U-M-based Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research.

“The threat to water resources in the Great Lakes—which hold about 95% of the surface fresh water in the US and support a multibillion-dollar blue economy—is real,” said Dick. “But despite these serious threats, key scientific questions surrounding the climate drivers and health impacts of cHABs remain unresolved. Our knowledge is not yet sufficient to predict how a changing climate will impact cHAB distributions, community composition, or toxicity.” 

Studies will combine observation, experiment, and modeling in areas of lake science, climatology, microbiology, and biomedical science. A community engagement core led by The Ohio State University (OSU) will communicate findings to relevant communities and stakeholders.

In addition to UT, UM and OSU, partners include more than 28 faculty researchers and dozens of students at Bowling Green State University, the University of Toledo, Wayne State University, Michigan State University, University of North Carolina, James Madison University, the State University of New York, and the University of Windsor in Canada.

By Randall Brown

Fall 2023: We are Hiring!

by

Fall 2023: We are Hiring!

Profile

Multiple Track and Rank Faculty Positions in Microbiology, Immunology, Plant-Microbe Interactions and Microbial Physiology!!

The Department of Microbiology at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville is seeking candidates for three tenure-track and one lecturer/lab coordinator faculty appointments.  Successful candidates are anticipated to start these positions August 1, 2024. UTK is a land-grant university and values engaged forms of research/scholarship/creative activity, teaching and service and considers evidence of these commitments in the records of applicants.

Position 1. We seek candidates at the rank of Associate or Full Professor (9-month, tenure-track) researching plant-associated microbes using molecular, genetic, biochemical, mathematical modeling and/or cell biology approaches. Specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Plant-microbe interactions in the context of resilience in agricultural ecosystems and maintaining plant-growth promoting microbes
  • Plant-microbe-mediated resistance and mitigation of pathogens
  • Mechanistic linkage of plant-microbiome composition, function and crop growth from microscopic to regional scales
  • Tritrophic interactions among plants, microorganisms, pollinators, and/or herbivores

Full details available here: http://apply.interfolio.com/131119

Position 2. We seek candidates at the rank of Assistant Professor (9-month, tenure-track) that study host immune responses to microbes using molecular, genetic, biochemical, and/or cell biological approaches. Specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Host responses to bacteria, fungi, protozoa (parasites), viruses, and/or helminths
  • Innate or adaptive immune responses to microbes
  • Innovative model systems for host-microbe immune focused interactions, including primary, zoonotic, and opportunistic pathogens or commensal species
  • Immune interactions at mucosal surfaces, including lungs, is of particular interest, but any niche will be considered

Full details available here: http://apply.interfolio.com/130937

Position 3. We seek candidates at the rank of Assistant Professor (9-month, tenure-track) in the area of microbial physiology. Specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Experimental models that answer the “how” and “why” of microbial systems
  • The physiology of microorganisms including bacteria, eukaryotes, and archaea
  • The physiological effects of viral infection on microorganisms
  • Interactions of microbes with their microbiomes and environments
  • Lab model systems that resolve mechanistic links between microbes or microbiomes and their environment

Full details available here: http://apply.interfolio.com/130406

Position 4. We seek candidates for a Lecturer and Instructional Laboratory Coordinator (12-month, non-tenure track). The position is renewable yearly, contingent upon evidence of excellence in teaching and performance of programmatic duties. Principal duties involve (i) teaching an introductory microbiology course and (ii) coordinating the administration of multiple microbiology lab courses (from introductory, non-majors to upper-level majors) each semester. Responsibilities include curricular development as well as mentoring and supervision of laboratory graduate student teaching assistants (GTAs). 

Full details available here: http://apply.interfolio.com/131123

The Department of Microbiology values the quality of life of all its members and is committed to supporting the intercultural goals of the University.  Located in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, The University of Tennessee Knoxville was founded in 1794 and is one of the oldest public universities in the nation. There are over 30,000 students enrolled at the Knoxville campus, who train and study in a city where excellence in academia meets the natural beauty of the southern Appalachian region and in the company of the artists, makers, and entrepreneurs that call Knoxville their home.

Parker Named 2020 Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences

by

Parker Named 2020 Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences

Profile

Benjamin Parker, an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology, is a member of the 2020 Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences. Parker was selected from among 191 nominations submitted by leading US academic and research institutions to receive four years of funding to invest in exploratory research.

The 2020 Pew Scholars are undertaking groundbreaking research projects aimed at advancing human health, from development and aging to better detection, prevention, and defense against cancer.

Parker’s research uses an insect (the pea aphid) and the beneficial and harmful microbes that inhabit it as a model system to study host-microbe interactions, and his lab uses genomic, molecular, and experimental techniques.

“This work will contribute to a broader understanding of how immune systems evolve and how natural selection shapes relationships between animals and beneficial microbes,” said Parker. “It will inform more applied research exploring the effects of microbial communities on human health and disease.”

The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to support the independent research of outstanding individuals who are in their first few years of their appointment at the assistant professor level.

-By Kelly Alley

Wilhelm Receives John H. Martin Award for Research

by

Wilhelm Receives John H. Martin Award for Research

Profile

The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) presents the John H. Martin Award to one paper each year that has led to fundamental shifts in research focus and interpretation of a large body of previous observations.

The 2021 John H. Martin Award is for “Viruses and nutrient cycles in the sea,” by Steven Wilhelm (University of Tennessee) and Curtis Suttle (University of British Columbia). The award will be presented at the 2021 ASLO Aquatic Sciences Virtual Meeting in June.

Wilhelm and Suttle’s foundational 1999 paper originated the concept of the ‘viral shunt,’ the phenomenon in which viral infection of marine microbes redirects flow of organic matter away from higher trophic levels and through the microbial loop. Drawing on early estimates of viral production in the water column, Wilhelm and Suttle shined a light on the considerable role viruses play in ocean biogeochemical cycles at a time when much of the research was focused on describing viral diversity and distribution. Their calculations showed that a staggering 25% of all photosynthetically fixed carbon, and associated nutrients, in the ocean may be recycled through the viral shunt.

Additionally, Wilhelm and Suttle made some of the first estimates of the total carbon stored in the viral pool and made eye-opening comparisons to the carbon stored in other types of marine organisms (including whales). Today, the concept of the viral shunt continues to influence our understanding of ocean ecosystem functioning and nutrient cycles. With >1000 citations, and more than 300 in the last five years, the legacy of “Viruses and nutrient cycles in the sea” and the viral shunt concept is still strongly felt in the field today.

“Every so often a novel concept is described which truly transforms a scientific field for decades,” says ASLO President Roxane Maranger. “Wilhelm and Suttle’s conception of the ‘viral shunt’ as a major pathway of oceanic carbon and nutrient flow in their 1999 paper is a stunning example of such a transformation.”

Full Citation: Wilhelm, S.W. and C.A. Suttle. 1999. Viruses and nutrient cycles in the sea, BioScience 49(10): 781-788. doi.org/10.2307/1313569.

ASLO is an international aquatic science society that was founded in 1948. For more than 60 years, it has been the leading professional organization for researchers and educators in the field of aquatic science. The purpose of ASLO is to foster a diverse, international scientific community that creates, integrates and communicates knowledge across the full spectrum of aquatic sciences, advances public awareness and education about aquatic resources and research, and promotes scientific stewardship of aquatic resources for the public interest. Its products and activities are directed toward these ends. With more than 3,800 members worldwide, the society has earned an outstanding reputation and is best known for its journals, interdisciplinary meetings, and special symposia. For more information about ASLO, please visit our website at www.ASLO.org.  

Mind the Gap

by

Mind the Gap

Profile

Message from the Department Head
In our Spring 2022 newsletter we are proud to share with you some highlights of the exciting and important research being conducted in the Department of Microbiology here at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. A distinguishing characteristic of academic scientists is their passion for integrating discovery with education. Scientists stand at the edge of knowledge, pushing outward toward information and ideas that can and do change the world for the better.

Throughout my career I have been inspired by the students with whom I have interacted, who are learning where that edge is, where to push, and how to be comfortable with not knowing all the answers. Often, undergraduate researchers are just beginning to realize that there even is an edge, and as educators we are metaphorically holding up signs that say “mind the gap.” Graduate student researchers know there is a gap, and have decided to commit themselves to exploring what lies within it. This is a brave decision that causes them to diverge from their peers who are starting or continuing their jobs in the ‘real world.’ For many, becoming a graduate student means daily struggles: trying to make the experiments work, trying to explain to friends and family why the results were devastating or exciting, trying to explain to a mentor why the experiment was done that way in the first place, and trying to balance the many obligations that come with being a scientist, student, educator, and a human being.

In my view, one of the greatest privileges of being a faculty member at an institution like ours is watching graduate students grow in their confidence as they realize that they are the world’s expert in the length of the gap they have chosen to study, and as they hone and expand on their ability to communicate old and new scientific ideas to anyone and everyone.

Graduate students are the linchpins of academic research. They are at the frontline of the gap, spending hours at the bench, computer, and field to wrangle large amounts of data and small amounts of liquid into something interpretable for the world. They are at the frontline of our ‘mind the gap’ campaign, helping convey in the classroom and instructional labs the results and importance of scientific discovery to hundreds of undergraduates, most of whom will not share their enthusiasm. They are at the frontline of our self-awareness and image as a department, reminding us of our obligations, both scientific and nonscientific to all members of society; reminding us often of why we are pursuing new knowledge.

Here in the department, as we start the spring semester of 2022, we have just finished interviewing students for the incoming graduate class of fall 2022. The first-year students are entering their second semester and have made the important decision of joining a lab, which will define the general area of the gap they will be exploring. The second-year students are developing and defending their project goals and approaches as they take their preliminary exam or defend their thesis. And the continuing dissertators are running ahead of their mentors, calling back as they transform the unknown into the known.  

As you read through the newsletter and gain a glimpse into the stories of some of our graduate students and faculty, I hope you will share my gratitude and awe for their choice to dedicate themselves to scientific inquiry. This choice, though difficult, makes all the difference to making sure the rest of us have solid ground beneath us. 

Heidi Goodrich-Blair
David and Sandra White Professor and Head of Microbiology

Jill Walton – Graduate Student Spotlight

by

Jill Walton – Graduate Student Spotlight

Profile

Marie Curie once wrote “One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” While speaking with doctoral researcher Jill Walton, it’s clear she is the embodiment of Curie’s words. As she excitedly tells me about her studies, volunteer work, and outreach dreams, I see her vision for a more intentional use of research, academia, and scholarship to benefit not only scientific knowledge, but also humanity. 

Walton studies the roseobacter clade of marine bacteria in Alison Buchan’s lab. Roseobacter has a unique ability to degrade stable benzene rings, making it a promising candidate for the natural removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are anthropogenic pollutants composed of 2 to 6 fused benzene rings. 

Both roseobacter and PAHs — which come from oil spills, industrial discharge, wastewater, and runoff — are largely abundant in coastal environments. This mutual presence, along with roseobacter’s degradation ability, present a promising situation. 

“Roseobacter and the pollutants are there. They show the ability to degrade smaller compounds, so can they degrade more complex, structurally similar compounds?” Walton summarizes. 

Her overarching goal is to create an effective solution for PAH removal in degraded coastal environments. 

“I’m looking at roseobacter’s ability in a lab environment to degrade these pollutants to see if we can harness its ability to bioremediate these areas,” she explains. “If we know how to stimulate them, we can use what is already there instead of adding nonnative solutions.” 

Little is known about the intricacies of roseobacter’s degradation ability; however, these hurdles do not phase Walton. 

“We just need to put all the pieces together and build the story,” she enthusiastically states. 

Walton’s passion for research and solution-oriented mindset extends outside of the lab as well, resulting in an extensive list of extracurricular involvement. She regularly volunteers at the Sustainable Future Center, serves as the Microbiology Department’s Graduate Students Association Outreach and Engagement chair, and lends her voice to the Student Disability Services (SDS) Student Advisory Board. 

But her engagement does not stop here. Walton is a participant in the Community Engagement Academy offered through UT’s Diversity and Engagement Department where she applies her love for research to outreach initiatives. 

“We have been learning about engaged scholarship,” she explains. “We are focusing on engagement that not only benefits the community, but also our professional interests.” 

Her goal is to utilize her connection with the Sustainable Future Center to implement a community soil and water testing initiative. Walton hopes to provide free testing kits and educational workshops for community members. 

“I don’t want there to be any barriers to participation,” she elaborates. “I am really excited about it! I think it has a lot of potential to be great and an initiative other people will continue when I am no longer here.” 

Walton undoubtedly has a bright future ahead of her. Her passion for scientific discovery and her unrelinquished kindness make her invaluable to both academia and her community.

-By Taylor Mattioli