Brooke Travis

I find deep-sea endosymbiotic relationships to be particularly captivating. Organisms that alone could not tolerate the conditions of the deep sea are able to thrive thanks to their associations with microbes. In the Girguis Lab, I study chemoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing endosymbioses in the ocean. The goals of my research are two-fold: 1) to better understand metabolic capabilities of both host and symbiont and 2) highlight the biogeochemical impact chemoautotrophic endosymbioses have on their associated environments. 

Prior to the Girguis Lab, I was an associate researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Northwest Fisheries Science Center and United States Geological Survey (USGS) Western Fisheries Research Center where I co-designed a new qPCR assay to detect an intranuclear bacterium possibly responsible for the mass die- offs of the pacific northwest razor clam. Additionally, throughout my undergraduate experience at Cornell University, I gained a diverse array of skillsets such as tracking whale vocalizations with novel sonar technology, monitoring Hawiian reef health, inoculating pathogens into microbially altered seagrass, and using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to characterize pteropod shell dissolution. 

In the Girguis Lab, I am grateful to both apply and build upon my interdisciplinary background to answer metabolic questions regarding chemoautotrophic symbioses in the deep sea.