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Applied Microbiology

Applied Microbiology

Dense cyanobacterial bloom in the Deschutes Arm of Lake Billy Chinook, central Oregon, tracked by Emeritus microbiologist Theo Dreher. Blooms can produce toxic chemicals that threaten water quality, recreational opportunities, fisheries, public health, and local and state economies.

The Department of Microbiology is harnessing the power of microbes to solve problems in agriculture, medicine, and environmental systems that are at ecological tipping points. We are field and laboratory researchers using innovative and collaborative approaches to advance biotechnologies for wide-ranging applications.

Scientists at the forefront of applied microbiology research

Kimberly Halsey

Associate Professor

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Kimberly Halsey

Associate Professor

Phytoplankton are the single celled plants in aquatic environments that initiate the carbon cycles and the aquatic food web. We study phytoplankton physiology by combining traditional culturing techniques with molecular, biochemical, and comparative measurements to understand the responses in photosynthesis, microbe-microbe interactions and variability in ocean productivity.

354 Nash Hall
(541) 737-1831
halseyk@science.oregonstate.edu

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The Halsey Lab

Thomas Sharpton

Associate Professor

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Thomas Sharpton

Associate Professor

We develop and apply high-throughput computational and statistical tools that characterize how microbiomes operate, diversify, and evolve in the context of their hosts. We are particularly interested in understanding how changes in the microbiome can influence vertebrate physiology.

530 Nash Hall
(541) 737-8623
thomas.sharpton@oregonstate.edu

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Michael Kent

Professor

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Michael Kent

Professor

The Kent Laboratory is focused on two major research areas: diseases of zebrafish in research facilities and impacts of pathogens on wild salmonid fishes. In both areas, we study chronic infectious diseases. Zebrafish make excellent research models but underlying chronic diseases are of concern as they relate to non-protocol induced variation in laboratory fish, as they would with any laboratory animal.

532 Nash Hall
(541) 737-8652
michael.kent@oregonstate.edu

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Maude David

Assistant Professor

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Maude David

Assistant Professor

Should we feed probiotics to honey bee? In collaboration with Dr. Priya Chakrabarti and Dr. Ramesh Sagili’s Honey Bee Lab at OSU, we are testing if nutritional supplements (such as probiotics) can offset gut pathogen stressor and/or significantly impact the microbeeal community. We are measuring if the different treatment can affect their floral choice, and therefore alters bee gustatory responses.

534 Nash Hall
(541) 737-0629
maude.david@oregonstate.edu

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Mahfuzur Sarker

Professor

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Mahfuzur Sarker

Professor

Clostridium perfringens have the ability to form metabolically dormant spores that can survive long periods in the environment. Once conditions are favorable, these dormant spores are transformed into metabolically active cells, produce toxins and cause gastrointestinal (GI) diseases in humans and animals. Sarker group conduct research on C. perfringens spores using innovative approaches such as, molecular techniques, genomics and proteomics, to understand its biology and to develop spore inactivation strategy to control C. perfringens mediated GI diseases

Dryden Hall 216
541-737-6918
sarkerm@oregonstate.edu

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Rebecca Vega-Thurber

Emile F. Pernot Distinguished Professor

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Rebecca Vega-Thurber

Emile F. Pernot Distinguished Professor

My lab’s research uses interdisciplinary and high technology approaches to address questions about how viruses and microbes function in and affect the environment. My research provides important insight into a variety of fields including: virology, microbiology, coral reef ecology, animal physiology, and the evolution of symbioses.

454 Nash Hall
(541) 737-1851
rebecca.vega-thurber@oregonstate.edu

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Vega Thurber Laboratory