Our research drives innovative solutions for sustainability and global climate resilience.
Dr. Nitin Baliga in the lab at ISB. Image credit: Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures.
ISB researchers are investigating the complex relationships within ecosystems to understand how they respond to environmental changes. We are developing solutions to ensure the survival of these natural systems. Our goal is to safeguard the planet’s ecological balance and promote sustainability in the face of global climate challenges.
Dr. Anna Kuchina in the lab at ISB. Image credit: Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures.
“As ecosystems face increasing environmental pressures, understanding their resilience and promoting a carbon-optimized bioeconomy is crucial. ISB is focused on finding innovative solutions that foster sustainability and ensure a healthy planet.”
Dr. Anna Kuchina, ISB Assistant Professor
Developing strategies to rehabilitate contaminated sites and conserve carbon
Studying the resilience and adaptation of ecosystems in a rapidly changing climate
ISB scientists are creating eco-friendly solutions for reducing carbon waste and restoring damaged environments. By studying microbial adaptation and improving biomanufacturing processes, we leverage the power of microbes to promote sustainability and environmental restoration. These efforts are paving the way for a cleaner, more resilient future.
Lab action shot. Photo credit: Scott Eklund / Red Box Pictures.
Microbial biomanufacturing uses bacteria or other cells from renewable resources to make fuels and other products. Today, up to a third of the carbon generated through this process is released as carbon dioxide waste. With funding from the Department of Energy, the Kuchina Lab, with the University of Washington and others, is learning how to make this process more carbon-efficient and sustainable.
Halobacterium salinarum in a petri dish. Photo credit: Baliga Lab/ISB.
Microbes, including H. salinarum which thrives in extremely salty marine environments, are extraordinarily successful in adapting to diverse and dynamic niche environmental conditions. To improve our ability to harness microbes for remediation and sustainability, the Baliga Lab, with NSF support, studies at the cellular level how H. salinarum responds to changes in its environment, including temperature, salinity, and oxygenation.
Research Associate Amardeep Kaur working in the Baliga Lab at ISB. Photo credit: Scott Eklund / Red Box Pictures.
The Oak Ridge Reservation – an original Manhattan Project site and home to a facility manufacturing nuclear weapon parts – is severely contaminated. Since 2009, a DOE-funded consortium that includes the Baliga Lab and 10 other research institutions has been developing a deep understanding of site aquifer microbial communities to find ways to rehabilitate contaminated sites by creating conditions favoring beneficial microbial communities.
ISB researchers examined representative organisms of two classes of microbes whose interaction contributes to the conversion of more than 1 gigaton of carbon into methane every year. They found that gene mutations selected over a relatively short timeframe in the two microbes led to distinct functions.
High school students Ashwin Mukherjee and Rohan Chanani worked with ISB Research Scientist Dr. Jacob Valenzuela on a project to build a machine learning algorithm to count algal cells from microscope images taken from a cell phone. In April, the team was recognized as champions in the DOE-sponsored AlgaePrize competition.
The quest to create cultivated meat has been a true multidisciplinary puzzle. It’s biology, engineering, physics, bioinformatics, mathematics, computer science, and more. Enter systems biology. ISB and other organizations are toiling to better understand how to create lab-grown meat in a safe, effective manner that can eventually scale up to compete with traditional meat.
We are discovering how key organisms like diatoms, coral reefs, and microbial communities adapt to environmental stressors. By studying these ecosystems, we aim to identify strategies for preserving biodiversity, support ecological health in the face of climate change, guide efforts to sustain marine life, and protect vital ecosystems for future generations.
Diatoms collected in the Pacific Ocean and photographed under a microscope. Image credit: Karie Holtermann.
Diatom algae photosynthesize carbon dioxide, playing a critical role in the viability of the marine food chain and in climate change. With NSF support, the Baliga Lab is developing a stress test to measure and predict the ability of diatoms to persist – to be ecologically resilient – as oceans become warmer and more acidic over the next century.
View of coral bleaching underwater. Image credit: Dr. Line Bay, Australian Institute of Marine Science.
Coral reefs, supporting 25 percent of all marine species and healthy oceans, are threatened by global warming. With Paul G. Allen Family Foundation support, the Baliga Lab is part of an international Global Search team identifying and assessing the biological characteristics of coral populations that are naturally resistant to rising temperatures to help coral conservation and restoration efforts.
Recolored figure from the Nature paper, “Origin of biogeographically distinct ecotypes during laboratory evolution.”
There is an enormous diversity of microbial life on earth, with an estimated 100 million separate species, most of which are not well explored. With NSF funding, the Baliga Lab is developing a robust model of microbial life, using it initially to understand how environmental changes affect two microbes that, working together, help cycle more than 1 gigaton of carbon annually.