In the Palmer Lab, we seek to understand the complexities of microbial interactions. We are interested in studying these interactions across a wide scale, from the dynamics of whole communities with hundreds of species, like the gut microbiome, all the way down to the specific molecules that mediate bacterial cooperation, competition, and communication. Scroll down to read more.
Ecology
We use experimental methods to study strong microbial interactions. While weak interactions between communities members can lead to large, stable communities, we know that many microbes deploy toxins and other highly competitive strategies to outcompete their neighbors. We seek to disentangle the ecological processes of strong microbial interactions and understand features which underpin competitive exclusion or stable coexistence. At the experimental core of microbial ecology is the ability to effectively count microbes. It’s much trickier than you might think! We’re always trying to come up with new creative methods to increase throughput and confidence with our bacterial counts.
Science – Bacterial species rarely work together
PLoS Biology – Horizontal gene transfer of molecular weapons can reshape bacterial competition
Evolution
We use theoretical modeling and experimental methods to understand how bacterial traits evolve in the context of their community environment. Separately, we also seek to understand the evolution of microbial communities in dynamic environments and under specific selection regimes. Can we use evolution to our advantage to design beneficial microbes or microbial communities?
PNAS – The evolution of spectrum in antibiotics and bacteriocins
Application
We seek to translate the principles of ecology and evolution to benefit human health. One area of interest is the development of engineered live biotherapeutic strains of bacteria. This is a very new a fast developing field, with some of the first engineered live therapeutic microbes in clinical trials. Much of my PhD work was spent working in this field in the late 2010’s. Can we bring the principles of ecology and evolution to improve the efficacy of live biotherapeutics?
ACS Infect Dis – Engineered Probiotic for the Inhibition of Salmonella via Tetrathionate-Induced Production of Microcin H47
ACS Infect Dis – Microcin H47: A Class IIb Microcin with Potent Activity Against Multidrug Resistant Enterobacteriaceae
More
We have developed a major new interest in bacteriophage, and have recently acquired and are experimenting with the entire BASEL collection. We also have an ever-growing collection of wild bacterial isolates, primarily made up of Enterobacteriaceae from human hosts. We aim to leverage diversity in traits or strategies between strains of a species as a major source of innovation and curiosity. We are also actively branching out beyond Enterobacteriaceae and the gut microbiome, testing our ideas in Gram-positive species, other human microbiome sites (e.g. skin or vaginal microbiomes), and in association with other hosts (e.g. plants).
The lab is actively interested in developing new projects in synthetic biology, bacteriocin ecology & evolution, and siderophore ecology & evolution. If you are interested in any of the topics we’re focused on, or would like to consider collaborative new directions, please reach out! I’ll be happy to discuss more.
