Giometto Lab
Principal Investigator: Andrea Giometto
Institution: Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
Abstract Microbes in host microbiomes, human infections and the natural environment often live in spatially structured aggregates and interact antagonistically with each other. Toxin-mediated antagonistic interactions are widespread in the gut, skin, and other human microbiomes, and protect these communities against external invasion. Recent results suggest that spatial structure can strongly affect the evolutionary dynamics of microbial populations, and, in turn, microbial interactions can feedback on the formation of spatial structure. For example, we found that mechanical interactions among dividing cells in growing yeast colonies reduce the power of natural selection by reducing the rates at which lower fitness strains go extinct and fitter ones expand in these populations. Despite spatial structure and microbial interactions have a strong impact on the evolutionary dynamics of microbes relevant for human health, most of what we know about microbial evolutionary dynamics comes from experiments with well-mixed liquid cultures with limited interactions among cells. To fill this gap, my group is interested in understanding quantitatively how spatial structure, mechanics and biolog…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R35GM147493-05: Evolutionary dynamics of dense, spatially structured, and antagonistic microbial populations (2026)
- 5R35GM147493-04: Evolutionary dynamics of dense, spatially structured, and antagonistic microbial populations (2025)
- 5R35GM147493-03: Evolutionary dynamics of dense, spatially structured, and antagonistic microbial populations (2024)
- 3R35GM147493-02S1: Evolutionary dynamics of dense, spatially structured, and antagonistic microbial populations (2024)
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