Jordan Unger

Profile

RESEARCH SUMMARY: I have been interested in the field of microbiology since my time in undergrad, where I attempted to cultivate a member of the Planctomycetota phylum from freshwater samples. During my master’s research, I studied whether the number of phosphate groups and acyl tails on the lipopolysaccharides of gram-negative bacteria contributed to how well antimicrobial peptides could kill the cells. I also cloned a deep mutational library from the native thanatin sequence on the pSLAY plasmid. This system allows inducible expression of the peptide sequence on the outer membrane of the individual bacterial cell and can test if one specific variant has antimicrobial effects. I’m excited to apply this previous microbiology knowledge towards characterizing the potential novel protists species in the Gibson Lab.