Biography

Lauren is a marine microbial ecologist interested in how microbes perceive and interact with other organisms and their environment. Lauren is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Vega Thurber Lab at Oregon State University.

Research

Lauren's research explores interactions of two bacterial symbionts within coral microbiomes. The first aims to understand the ecology and molecular mechanisms of interaction for the ubiquitous yet poorly understood marine predatory bacterium, Halobacteriovorax. The second component of her work contributes to the Vega Thurber's Rickettsiales in Caribbean Acropora (RICA) project focused on the novel coral symbiont and parasite Aquarickettsia rohweri.

Education

Ph.D. in Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2021

B.Sc. in Environmental Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016