Elijah (Eli) Mehlferber:
Eli received his Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, completing his dissertation which examined the role that phyllosphere-associated bacterial communities play in modulating their host health and functions. While at U.C. Berkeley, Eli worked under the mentorship of Ph.D. Britt Koskella, whose research focused on the coevolution of hosts and their symbionts in the environment. Eli is currently a NSF postdoctoral fellow in our lab, and is interested in understanding the traits that underly Pseudomonas aeruignosa’s success as a generalist and opportunistic pathogen. Specifically focusing on linking genomic features to phenotypic traits, he employs both experimental and computational approaches to answer several important questions:
1). Why are some strains of P. aeruginosa more successful than others when transitioning between different environments? 2). Can we find evidence in the genomes of these strains to indicate which environments they have previously adapted to? 3). Does the evolutionary and environmental history of P. aeruignosa strains influence their ability to adapt to future environments? and 4). Can the preceding information be leveraged to determine the risk of a strain invading a new habitat using only genomic information on that strain?