Origins Institute e-Visitor-Colloquium with Drew Gorman-Lewis

Adventures in Metabolic Energetics of Sulfur Oxidizing Extremophiles

Join members of the Origins Institute as they welcome Dr. Drew Gorman-Lewis from the University of Washington to give a talk that is open to members of the public. How much energy does microbial life need? This is a fundamental question for researchers in many disciplines including astrobiologists seeking to evaluate the potential for life on other planets, environmental microbiologists searching to explain ecosystem dynamics, and geobiologists unraveling the metabolic strategies of the earliest life on Earth. Calorimetry and geochemical modeling provide a means to investigate energy usage of microbes under a variety of geochemical conditions. We have applied this approach to learn about the microbial growth energetics of Acidianus ambivalens, a thermoacidophile that can grow aerobically on elemental sulfur.

In this seminar, Dr. Gorman-Lewis will share what we have learned about aerobic growth of Acidianus ambivalens and how our investigative approach could be applied to future studies to improve our understanding of the influence geochemical conditions have on the energetic needs of microbes.

Drew Gorman-Lewis is a geochemist who studies how chemicals from natural and anthropogenic processes, like mining and nuclear energy, behave in the environment. To have a better understanding of how these chemicals can affect everything from water quality to microbial communities, he takes an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating methods from microbiology, physical chemistry, and thermodynamic modeling. Organisms that make their livings in extreme environments also fascinate him, and he looks at the physiological characteristics that make such a life possible.