Research in the Riekhof lab centers around two major themes:
First, we are exploring the potential of algae to remediate industrial, agricultural, and municipal waste streams, and convert these wastes (carbon dioxide, nitrates, ammonia, and phosphorus) into valuable products (oil, starch, protein meal, fertilizer, pigments, etc.)  This work stems from my continued interests in algal lipid metabolism, and it’s regulation by macronutrient and carbon availability.  Additional projects are underway in the lab regarding the roles of plant hormones in the growth, biomass accumulation, and stress tolerance of eukaryotic algae, and on the microbial ecology of algal ecosystems, i.e. what is the structure of the bacterial microbiome of open algal cultures, and the potential for cross-kingdom chemical communication via phytohormones.
Second, with glycerolipid metabolism as the unifying theme, we have an additional set of projects aimed at using the powerful genetic, genomic, biochemical, and cell biological tools in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to investigate lipid transport, remodeling, storage lipid accumulation, and the roles of specific phospholipids in different cellular processes.
Learn More