Research Interests

Wu lab attempts to link the molecular and cellular interactions of microbial cells to biogeochemistry and evolution, in order to contribute to addressing two basic questions:

 

1. How are nitrogen and carbon cycles quantitatively linked in the face of resource limitations? For this, we are developing cultivation technologies and combining them with various omics and quantitative approaches.

 

2. How did genetic diversity emerge in the prokaryotes and propagate across eukaryotes? For this, we are combining bioinformatics and protein biochemistry, with a recent focus on the central dogma as well as its hijacking by mobile genetic elements.

 

In the lab, we mostly grow anaerobic archaeal and bacterial species as well as marine communities.