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“Research is one of the most exciting ways to spend your time” — Jo Handelsman

How do you study the genomes of organisms that can’t be grown in the lab? Jo Handelsman at Yale is interested in the impact of small molecules produced by microbes, or their hosts, on the nature and robustness of microbial communities. Her lab is particularly interested in soil bacteria, the vast majority of which cannot be cultured. Why they can’t is still a bit of a puzzle, so Jo and her colleagues use ‘metagenomics’–extracting DNA directly from the soil (in this case) and sequencing everything. This gives them an insight into what she calls “a previously unknown world.” They are looking at the secondary metabolites–antibodies and whatnot–both in terms of basic research and for practical application.

She also works on the microbial communities of insect guts, being interested in how the communities establish and interact with each other and the host. A particular interest of the lab is in polymicrobial diseases, in which a single bacterial species is not effective in causing disease, but it is when in the presence of other bacteria. This is similar to the interests of Marvin Whiteley, who worked with Jason Shear on bacterial “lobster pots” (Hidden Jewel at The Scientist). “Scientists tend to want simple answers,” Jo says, which makes it difficult to get funding and papers published: “You have to be really clever about the way you serve it up!”

Back in January, Jo received the Presidential Award for Science Mentoring. Here she is talking about the award, what it means to her, and why mentoring is important.

“Your curiosity is one of the most fundamentally human, intellectual and emotional aspects of us”

Download Jo Handelsman on mentoring.