Kirsten Guckes

Research Interests

Most animals rely on beneficial microbes for proper development and health. These beneficial microbes are continually interacting with one another as they fight to colonize their host. The Guckes Lab studies the molecular weapons harbored by beneficial bacteria and how these weapons impact symbiosis establishment. To investigate this phenomenon, the lab uses the mutualistic symbiosis between the Hawaiian bobtail squid and the bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio ficsheri as an experimental platform.