Chloé Hart, PhD Candidate
I'm a fifth year graduate student at the University of Washington working towards my dual-title PhD in Earth and Space Sciences and Astrobiology. I work with Dr. Drew Gorman-Lewis, focusing on the bioenergetics and biochemistry of extremophiles.
Relevant Links
Earth & Space Sciences
U of Washington, Seattle
UW Astrobiology
U of Washington, Seattle
Geomicrobiology
U of Washington, Seattle
MY LATEST RESEARCH
How much energy does life need to grow? I am working on quantifying energy budgets for extreme microorganisms that thrive in high-temperature, low-pH settings (i.e. hot springs in Yellowstone National Park). The work will help us understand how energy needs change in response to nutrients, learn more about maintenance energy in these types of extremophiles, and aid our search for life elsewhere in the Solar System and beyond.
Extreme nitrogen fixation All life requires nitrogen to grow and often it is the limiting nutrient in the environment. Because of this limitation, some organisms have adapted to fix atmospheric nitrogen into bio-available nitrogen with an enzyme called nitrogenase. I am studying a high-temperature methanogen that is able to fix nitrogen at record high temperatures. How is the nitrogenase used by this extreme organism different from all the others?