Mentor: Christopher Powers, University of Rhode Island
Co-Mentor: Ying Zhang, University of Rhode Island

Project Location

University of Rhode Island-Kingston

Project Description

One of the most common techniques used for understanding the ecological role of a microbial community is to measure the diversity of its constituents. Previously, we have developed a web portal that visualizes the taxonomic profiles of bacteria in Narragansett Bay (NB). As an extension to this prior project, here we propose to build a web based platform for the visualization and analysis of the functional potentials represented by their genomes. This platform will be enabled by our in-house open source software package, PSAMM, and will provide the capacity for curating and analyzing metabolic pathways from genome annotations. Students will receive training on metabolic modeling and metagenomics. This research will provide novel insights into the functional diversity of microbial communities in NB and allow access for a broad community of researchers.

Additional Information

• Dr. Zhang’s Research Page