Jennifer Bhatnagar

Jennifer Bhatnagar and her lab study the ecology, chemistry, and biology of microorganisms in the environment. Microbes are the engines of carbon and nutrient cycling through ecosystems. The goal of their research is to uncover the biochemical mechanisms that microbes use to drive these large-scale processes. To do this, they use a combination of biochemical analyses and sequencing technologies to identify direct, mechanistic links between the genetic architecture, community structure, and biochemical functions of microbes in complex environments. They focus on organisms in Kingdom Fungi, because they are directly responsible for moving energy and elements between the biosphere and the atmosphere, but are less well understood than plants, animals, and bacteria. Fungi also make beautiful macrostructures that have a long and interesting history in human society, and now are also aiding us in new studies of molecular-level fungal processes in the environment.