Achievement

An IGERT class manuscript discussing approaches and results from a modeling case study of microbial community interactions was submitted for publication. The manuscript is a culmination of our one-year academic IGERT course in Geobiological Systems, and is a truly interdisciplinary effort led by students and comprised of authors from five different departments including biochemistry, chemical engineering, microbiology, geology, and land resources and environmental science. The manuscript discusses details of in silico analysis of mass and energy flows in a phototrophic microbial mat of Yellowstone National Park. This work develops novel techniques for incorporating and understanding the relationships between geochemistry, metabolism and microbial communities.