Rocap Lab Website

Education:

B.A. Biology and History. Pomona College. Claremont, CA (2008).

M.S. and Ph.D. Oceanography. University of Washington. Seattle, WA (2008-present)

Research Interests: Ecology of marine viruses

My interests in marine virology began with studying viruses in coral reef ecosystems during my undergraduate career at Pomona College. I focused on the distribution of human associated adenoviruses found in corals and water in Kane'ohe Bay, Hawaii and their potential for being used as a proxy for anthropogenic impact in the bay.

At the University of Washington, I am researching viruses that infect the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia. This marine phytoplankton can produce domoic acid, which results in amnesic shellfish poisoning if consumed. Diatoms are also incredibly important primary producers and therefore their propulations have a direct impact on the global carbon cycle. Viruses are important regulators of marine communities and have been shown to cause the demise of phytoplankton blooms, be important in lateral gene transfer, and influence nutrient cycling. The implications of better understanding the dynamics between viruses and Psuedo-nitzschia range from developing warning systems for communities affected by harmful algal blooms, clarifying the controls on carbon cycling, and more.

Currently, I am working on isolating and characterizing a virus that infects Pseudo-nitzschia. This is mostly culture dependent work, but also involves epifluoresent microscopy to count viruses, and some genomic techniques to sequence the genome of the isolated virus. Eventually, my research will focus more on viral interactions in the field using metagenomic approaches to understand the viral and phytoplankton communities.