I am currently expanding my interest in two areas, biofilms in the petroleum industry and biomarkers correlating with radiation exposure. I have also funded projects with energy producers and retailers to investigate the microbially influenced corrosion in oilfield infrastructure, primarily caused by sulfate reducing and acid producing bacteria as well as storage and distribution locations for finished fuels.
During my interaction with Dr. Laura Cox’ group had resulted in sequencing and identification of novel species from deep wells in the Permian basin that are subject to some of the worst deterioration in the industry. These organisms/biofilms are currently being studied in the lab to follow their evolution over time with a multi-omic analytical approaches to identify the species and markers related to microbial influenced corrosion in this particular system.
Through my participation with the DTRA bionuclear working group, I have identified opportunities to investigate biomarkers related to the gut microbiome indicative of radiation exposure from multiple sources. Advances in multi-omic approaches and data analysis provide the opportunity to identify exposure markers in multiple data sets that may not have been previously observable.