Dr. Daniel Segrè and Dr. Melisa Osborne were recently featured in The Brink for their article “Non-additive microbial community responses to environmental complexity,” which was published in nature communications this spring. An excerpt of The Brink article is below:
There’s a lot of interest right now in how different microbiomes—like the one made up of all the bacteria in our guts—could be harnessed to boost human health and cure disease. But Daniel Segrè has set his sights on a much more ambitious vision for how the microbiome could be manipulated for good: “To help sustain our planet, not just our own health.”
Segrè, director of the Boston University Microbiome Initiative, says he and other scientists in his field of synthetic and systems biology are studying microbiomes—microscopic communities of bacteria, fungi, or a combination of those that exert influence over each other and the surrounding environment. They want to know how microbiomes might be directed to carry out important tasks like absorbing more atmospheric carbon, protecting coral reefs from ocean acidification, improving the fertility and yield of agricultural lands, and supporting the growth of forests and other plants despite changing environmental conditions.
Read the full article here.