Our Research Interests
Our oceans are contaminated by pollution stemming from our reliance on fossil fuels. This includes oil spills from crude oil and microplastics. These pollutants do not float and exist harmlessly; instead, they can interact with marine life and other pollutants, producing complex environmental impacts which we are only starting to comprehend.
We focus on investigating how bacteria residing on surfaces, especially at oil-water and plastic-water interfaces, contribute to the breakdown or transformation of pollutants. We aim to answer questions like:
How do bacteria interact with oil and plastic on a microscopic scale?
Can we enhance the natural biodegradation process of oil and plastics?
How do sunlight, saltwater, and time alter the behavior of plastics in the ocean?
Why is this important?
Understanding how bacteria interact with oil and plastics is crucial for tackling major environmental problems. Certain marine microbes naturally break down oil and adhere to plastic surfaces, which helps remove pollutants from our oceans. This process is known as bioremediation. However, these interactions can also have negative effects, such as making plastics more toxic or enabling harmful chemicals to spread. By studying these microbial processes, we can improve methods for cleaning up pollution, better predict its long-term effects, and ultimately protect marine ecosystems and the communities that rely on them.
Current projects
Our lab brings together microbiology, colloidal chemistry, surface chemistry, and chemical engineering to study how microbes interact with pollutants over time. Some of the current projects are:
- Genetic engineering of marine bacteria capable of addressing oil spills and microplastic cleanup.
- The investigation of how microbes organize on complex surfaces and how this influences pollutant mobility.
- Understanding how microbial biofilms alter the adherence and transport of harmful chemicals on microplastics and the consequent changes in their toxicity.
- The isolation of biosurfactants from marine bacteria to study their applications for industrial and environmental use.