Principal Investigator Leona Samson
Co-investigators Peter Dedon , Bevin Engelward , Susan Erdman , John Essigmann , James Fox , Jacquin Niles , Katharina Ribbeck , Ram Sasisekharan , Janelle Thompson , John Wishnok
Advances over the past decade have mandated a broader view of environment-health linkages, in which genomics and ecology play an increasingly prominent and important role. Future advances require better understanding of evolution, gene flow, and ecosystem processes. Gene flow, for example, can affect the distribution of pathogenicity, or the acquisition of antibiotic resistance or biodegradative capability in microbial communities. Ecosystem processes govern the nature of coexisting populations at scales from that of the gut flora to that of continents, with direct effects on humans at all scales. Examples of projects ongoing as part of this Research Theme include: population dynamics of pathogenic and non-pathogenic Vibrio species in natural waters, the ecology of the lower gut and how that influences cancer susceptibility, the ecology and evolution of microorganisms in nature.