Heap Leach Innovation Initiative

Not all E. coli Make You Poop! Investigating Recurrent ExPEC Infection

Our group studies Extraintestinal Pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) bacteria, a leading cause of urinary tract and bloodstream infections. We are interested in understanding ExPEC virulence mechanisms as well as how these bacteria survive being killed by antibiotics and cause recurrent disease.

A Knead for Genetics: Using Yeast to Understand Organelle Biology

Organelles are the defining characteristic of eukaryotic cells. The membranes that enclose organelles are tightly regulated in response to stimuli and stress.

From Waste to Resources: The Future of Critical Materials

Professor Xinbo Yang’s research centers on extractive metallurgy, with a focus on developing sustainable technologies for the recovery of critical resources. Her group works on innovative processes and functional materials to extract rare earth elements, battery metals, and other critical resources from waste and recycled products such as spent batteries and electronic waste.

Of Ruminants and Rats: Using Stable Isotopes to Probe Physiology

Stable isotopes are non-radioactive forms of elements that share the same number of protons but differ in their number of neutrons. Although chemically identical, isotopes vary in mass, and those mass differences influence how they partition in physical, chemical, and biological systems.

Molecular Mechanisms that Regulate Skeletal Muscle Metabolism

The Funai laboratory is interested in studying energy metabolism. In particular, we are interested in how imbalance in energy intake (food consumption) and expenditure (physical activity) influence mitochondria to promote a variety of diseases.

Antimicrobials from the soil

Soil bacteria live in a competitive environment, constantly battling each other for resources. To survive, they produce special chemicals called natural products, which can help them fight off other microbes.

Investigating the Role of “Fluke” in the Bacterial Flagellar System

Many bacteria move using long helical structures called flagella, tiny molecular nanomachines that rotate like propellers and enable cells to swim toward nutrients. Building and controlling such a complex structure requires dozens of specialized proteins working together in coordination.

Genetic Dissection of the Dalekin Signaling Pathway in Arabidopsis

Genetic dissection of the dalekin signaling pathway in Arabidopsis Plants use signaling between the shoot and the root to understand their environment and respond to stress. A root to shoot signaling that communicates the perception of rhizosphere stress to the shoot was discovered when analyzing a mutant with growth defects.

DNA, Mutations, Cancer and Astrobiology

DNA provides the blueprint for life but the information is constantly eroding due to chemical damage. Evolution provided molecular systems to restore information by repairing chemically damaged DNA.