Welcome to the Laboratory of Quantitative Evolutionary Microbiology, led by Dr. Michael Manhart. We study how microbes grow, interact, and evolve, using a combination of laboratory experiments, data analysis, and computational modeling.
We are based in the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers University and affiliated with the Rutgers University Microbiome Program. Previously we were based in the Institute of Integrative Biology at ETH Zurich.
Recent news
- What do we look for in new lab members? Our lab’s approach to evaluating job applications and interviewsAs a young scientist I spent a lot of time applying to jobs and interviewing. For me the most frustrating part was the lack of transparency and feedback — written job criteria were usually vague, and afterward I received little to no feedback on why I didn’t get the job. Now that I am on… Read more: What do we look for in new lab members? Our lab’s approach to evaluating job applications and interviews
- Duhita receives an award for her abstract at the annual RUMP retreatDuhita received an award in the environmental microbiome category for her abstract on “The effect of cross-feeding interactions on mutant fitness in communities of E. coli” at this year’s annual retreat of the Rutgers University Microbiome Program. Congratulations, Duhita!
- New preprint from Aswin, Anastasia, and Michael on quantifying colimitation in microbesWith our collaborators Noelle Held and Donat Crippa and former lab members Aswin and Anastasia, Michael has posted a bioRxiv preprint titled “Nutrient colimitation is a quantitative, dynamic property of microbial populations.”
- Justus attends APS March MeetingJustus attended the 2024 American Physical Society March Meeting in Minneapolis, MN, USA. He gave a talk titled “Quantifying microbial fitness under conceptual uncertainty” in the session on Evolutionary Dynamics.
- New preprint from Michael on concepts, causes, and consequences of microbial nutrient colimitationWith our collaborator Noelle Held, Michael has posted an EcoEvoRxiv preprint titled “Are microbes colimited by multiple resources?”