Research Interests
Ecological Interactions Shaping Genetic Success
A central interest of my research is how ecological interactions within microbial communities shape the success or failure of antibiotic-resistant strains. Rather than viewing resistance as an intrinsic property of individual bacteria, I am interested in how resistance dynamics emerge from multi-layered ecological processes operating at the community level.
When a resistant strain enters a microbial community, like in the human gut, its fate depends not only on its genetic properties but on how it interacts with resident species through resource competition, metabolic by-products, and community structure. I focus on why the same strain can thrive in one community context but be excluded in another, and how within- and between-species competition, functional redundancy, and metabolic dependencies shape resistance emergence across microbiomes.
Evolution and Diversification of Mobile Genetic Elements
Mobile genetic elements, including plasmids and integrative conjugative elements, are key drivers of antibiotic resistance spread. A key interest of my research is how these elements form dynamic evolutionary families shaped by host ecology, recombination, and long-term diversification rather than following single, linear trajectories.
I am particularly interested in how novel resistance structures emerge through modular assembly, as independent elements combine to generate new genetic functions, and how ecological interactions within multi-species communities shape plasmid persistence and stability. By integrating phylogenetics, comparative genomics, and experimental evolution, my work explores how selection, recombination, and host transitions shape the genetic diversity of mobile elements across ecological contexts.
Model-based Inference of Genetic Invasion
Understanding how microbial communities permit or resist genetic invasion is a central question in microbiology. Despite their complexity, microbiomes often show some ecological common rules, such as competition thresholds, facilitative interactions, and functional redundancy, that shape stability and diversity. A core interest of my research is whether genetic invasion follows analogous ecological principles.
I use quantitative ecological models as interpretative tools to link experiments with theory, to understand how community structure constrains the establishment or collapse of new genetic associations. By integrating models with controlled microbial community experiments and genomic analyses, my work focuses on identifying which ecological processes are essential for explaining genetic invasion, and on building interpretable models that capture real biological mechanisms.