Lauren Hart

I am an environmental chemical biologist utilizing multi-omic tools to investigate the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in freshwater cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms. My work uses metagenomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics to disentangle the biotic and abiotic interactions driving toxin production in our freshwater ecosystems by cyanobacteria. I am interested in utilizing spatiotemporally resolved multi-omic datasets in tandem with cyanobacterial isolates and toxicological bioassays to assess the heterogenous biosynthetic capabilities of cyanobacteria and their impacts to human health. Additionally, I am excited to apply these approaches and learnings to Lake Victoria, Kenya, a Great Lake of Africa.