Education
Ph.D. Molecular Biology, Princeton University
B.A. Biology, Carleton College
Research
How do microorganisms interact to form complex communities?
Nearly every environment on earth is home to an invisible community of bacteria and other microbes. The diverse microbial communities that inhabit soil, oceans, and the human gut influence their environment by driving global carbon cycling and impacting human health. Therefore, understanding how microbes coexist in communities will be critical for harnessing their potential to improve human and environmental health.
The Taga lab developed the corrinoid model to investigate how interactions among individual microbes structure communities. Corrinoids—the vitamin B12 family of cofactors—are one of many types of nutrient produced by a subset of the microbes that use them. We use a combination of genetic, biochemical, and bioinformatic approaches to discover how the interactions between corrinoid-producing and -requiring microbes evolve and shape community structure.
