Sheri Simmons
Assistant Scientist
e: ssimmons@mbl.edu
p: 508 289 7177
f: 508 457 4727
Simmons_CV

Please visit the Simmons Laboratory website for more information.

Dr. Sheri Simmons is trained in molecular microbial ecology, classical ecology, microbial metagenomics, and bioinformatics. Her current research centers on using the microbiome of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana as a laboratory model system to discover fundamental processes of microbial community assembly. The Simmons lab uses high-throughput sequencing to investigate the interaction between selective and random processes in shaping the structure and function of host-associated microbiota. In recent work, she demonstrated that the taxonomic composition of microbes associated with Arabidopsis leaves converges over time to a stable structure distinct from environmental inocula. The Simmons lab has recently developed techniques for microbe-free growth of Arabidopsis that allow direct manipulation of host-microbial interactions, as well as novel methods for metagenomic analysis of plant-associated microbes. Dr. Simmons’s overall research goal is to use the Arabidopsis-leaf microbiome system to address fundamental questions about mechanisms shaping microbial communities at multiple levels of genetic variation.

Personnel

Meghan Chafee
Research Assistant III
e: mchafee@mbl.edu
p: 508 289 7602
f: 508 457 4727

Lois Maignien
Postdoctoral Scientist
e: lmaignien@mbl.edu
p: 508 289 7285
f: 508 457 4727