I'm excited to apply integrative and innovative approaches to understand and improve the connection between microbes and important biological processes. With expertise in genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, my research has primarily focused on systems approaches to better understand bacterial roles and the mechanisms they employ in complex environments and interactions. Bacterial communities contributing to biodegradation or biodeterioration are of particular interest.
Some questions I'm currently working on or would like to work on:
Teredinibacter turnereae, a cultivable intracellular endosymbiont of shipworms (wood-eating bivalves)
- How are carbohydrate-active enzymes secreted? How are they selectively concentrated and transported within the host? What role do membrane vesicles play?
- How are carbohydrate-active enzymes regulated? How does the host affect this regulation? Can the regulatory mechanisms of free-living T. turnerae be similarly manipulated?
- How do shipworm endosymbionts, including T. turnerae, differ from their non-symbiont lignocellulolytic relatives?
Multi-omic investigation of biodeterioration of material surfaces
- How do single species and mixed communities behave metabolically during successive steps of biofilm formation and maturation on material surfaces?
- How variable is this metabolic activity in experimental systems? What determines contrasting metabolic behaviors?
Design of synthetic bacterial communities for engineered systems
Contact
[Contact picture]
Mark Gasser, D.Eng.
Research Scientist | Project Manager
Research and Exploratory Development Department
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
11100 Johns Hopkins Road
Laurel, Maryland 20723-6099