Immune Cells to Oceans
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Let’s Talk Flow Cytometry!
Aquatic unicellular microorganisms compose the vast majority of biological diversity on our planet and perform a significant portion of the global biogeochemical processing, such as carbon and nitrogen fixation, organic material degradation, and the recycling of life-sustaining elements. This talk will explore the biodiversity of these microbes using single-cell genomics and how the technique has enabled the recovery of the genomic blueprints of many uncultured aquatic microbial groups and revealed unrecognized biogeochemical processes.
Dr. Nicole Poulton, Director of the Center for Aquatic Cytometry
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
Dr. Nicole Poulton is the Director of the Center for Aquatic Cytometry and a Research Scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. Nicole’s main research interests focus primarily on phytoplankton and aquatic microbial ecology, including harmful algal blooms and the role of phytoplankton in the global carbon cycle. Her research uses aquatic cytometry, single cell sorting and genomics to examine phytoplankton and bacterioplankton in the oceanic environment across the globe. She has over 25 years of flow cytometric experience within the aquatic sciences. Nicole received a BS and BA in Biology and Chemistry from Virginia Tech, and completed her PhD in Biological Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. She joined Bigelow Laboratory in 2001 as a Postdoc and became a Research Scientist in 2008 and Director of the Center for Aquatic Cytometry in 2014. Nicole is very active in education and outreach and is also an ISAC Shared Resource Laboratory Emerging Leader (2017-2021).