Research Questions

Photo Credit:

E. Sternhagen Schwenk

Culturomics and Microbiome Analysis of Contaminated Soils

Building a robust bacterial collection from North Dakota’s oil-contaminated soils to identify microbial degraders and assemble SynComs tailored to remediate local soils.

Synthetic Community Design and Application

Utilizing locally-sourced bacterial strains to construct and test synthetic communities that can foster crop growth under stress, with potential for broader agricultural and bioremediation applications.

Secondary Plant Metabolites in Bioremediation

Investigating how plant secondary metabolites may induce degradation pathways in microbes, providing insights into sustainable remediation techniques that integrate agricultural byproducts with bioremediation efforts.

Photo Credit:

E. Sternhagen Schwenk