Increasing our understanding of the microbial interactions has tremendous potential to improve agricultural, environmental, and human health. Our lab focuses on host and environmental microbiomes, microbial community cooperation and competition, and modulation of community function. Current lab research spans diverse biological scales, including the microbial roles in organic waste cycling, forensic microbiology, and human health. We utilize a combination of environmental sampling, laboratory models, multi-omics, and bioinformatic tools to explore the relationship between microbial diversity, microbial interactions, and ecological outcomes in free-living and host-associated systems.