Some microbes cause disease in host organisms, but most do not, and we are only beginning to understand the broad range of benefits they provide for the host. We refer to these bacteria, fungi and micro-eukaryotes as the symbiotic microbiome. Host-associated microbes confer diverse benefits ranging from digestive to immunological functions, including mediation of pathogens….

Anthropogenic changes to landscapes are well known to have dramatic impacts on biodiversity, but the effects on inconspicuous members of biological communities, including parasites and pathogens, remain less well understood. In my lab, we are studying the relationship between land use change and disease in Colorado amphibians. We discovered that native leopard frogs in Colorado…

Invasive species are one of the leading threats to biodiversity. Infectious disease can enter the mix in several ways. Invasive species, on average, leave behind the majority of their parasites when they become established in new regions and are slow to acquire new parasites in the invaded regions. This pattern has broad implications for the…

March 2022 Melissa Chen’s work on bacterial biofilms was chosen as a Spotlight piece for Applied and Environmental Microbiology! -article here January 2022 Graduate student Melissa Chen publishes her first dissertation chapter in Molecular Ecology! December 2021 Melissa Chen graduates and becomes Dr. Chen!!  Congratulations to Melissa, an amazing lab member and quantitative microbial ecologist….