Meet the Microbiologist

Ute Hentschel is a professor of chemical ecology at the University of Würzburg in Germany. Her research focuses on characterizing the microbial communities associated with marine sponges, the diversity of these symbionts and their activities. On this episode, I talk with Ute Hentschel about her research on the microbes that live on and in sea sponges – those squishy, colo rful residents of coral r...

Seth D a rs t is a professor of Molecular Biophysics at the Rockefeller University in New York city, where his research centers on RNA polymerase , the enzyme at the heart of a cell’s ability to make protein from a set of DNA instructions. In this interview, I talk with Dr. Darst about how he got his start in research, whether computers will eventually be able to predict complex protein structures...

Ralph Tanner , a professor of microbiology at the University of Oklahoma, focuses his research on anaerobes in the environment and putting those bacteria to use in industry. He develops useful microbial catalysts for biofuel production from sustainable crops and has extended our knowledge of microbial diversity by isolating a number of new genera and species with novel physiologies. He helped defi...