Biography
Dr Lauren Messer is a microbial ecologist focused on the diversity and function of microbiomes within their ecological, environmental, and evolutionary contexts. Her research interests span a diverse range of environments from soils to sea, and address several natural and anthropogenic phenomena, such as nutrient cycling, plastic pollution, and climate change.
Lauren earned a PhD in Microbial Oceanography within the Climate Change Cluster at the University of Technology Sydney, identifying hotspots of biological nitrogen fixation in Australia’s tropical and temperate seas.
Subsequently she worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics at the University of Queensland and later supported Professor Gene Tyson to establish the Centre for Microbiome Research at the Queensland University of Technology, performing some of the first genome-resolved metagenomic analyses of coral microbiomes and working on low-input metatranscriptomics of free-living marine microbial communities.
Returning to the UK, Lauren began a postdoctoral position at the University of Stirling, studying metaproteomic analysis of biofilms colonising marine plastic pollution, and microbial interactions with pyrogenic carbon in tropical grassland soils.
Lauren’s background includes disciplines in microbiology, ecology, oceanography, biogeochemistry, environmental genomics, and bioinformatics.
At the Earlham Institute, Lauren will be mentored by Dr Chris Quince, Group Leader at the Earlham Institute and Quadram Institute, while exploring microbial communities from some of the UK’s most important natural spaces that are integral mediators of biodiversity.