Science Writing | Fact Checking | Microbiology
Research
The only scientific topics that I do not write about in a journalistic capacity are the specific areas that I am actively investigating and writing about as a primary researcher.
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I am an environmental microbiologist, with research experience in microbial evolution, geobiology, biogeochemistry, astrobiology, bioinformatics and bioremediation. I received my PhD in Microbiology from MIT, exploring the evolution and diversity of microbial nitrogen metabolisms in the Fournier Lab. ​I'm currently a postdoctoral scholar in the Alvarez-Cohen Group at UC Berkeley, where my projects focus on microbial bioremediation of persistent pollutants.​
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I'm particularly interested in how microbial metabolisms respond to changing environments, whether on the ancient Earth or in modern ecosystems.​​
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Check out some recent research topics and publications below!
Bacterial enzymes for halogenated contaminant biotransformation
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How can environmental microbes transform persistent pollutants?
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More specifically, how might microbial enzymes degrade toxic halogenated compounds, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)...when microbes have no enzymatic pathways specifically evolved to handle these manmade compounds?​​
Cyanide is both a potent environmental contaminant and a key molecule for models of the origin of life. But how and when did microbes develop the ability to use or detoxify this toxic compound? Phylogenetics, molecular dating, and ancestral sequence reconstruction can help us peek a few billion years into the past for some answers.
Evolution of microbial cyanide metabolisms​​
(See more in Schwartz et al, Front. Microbiol. 2023)
Denitrification in subsurface Chloroflexi
Phylum Chloroflexi is a diverse group of environmental bacteria. Some of these microbes can perform denitrification, a core nitrogen cycle pathway that converts fixed nitrogen into atmospheric nitrogen gas (often producing a potent greenhouse gas in the process)...and a few of these bacteria, found deep underground, seem to have evolved some pretty unusual genes for doing this.
(See more in Schwartz et al, MicrobiologyOpen 2022)