Pollutant co-exposure and antimicrobial resistance

Environmental pollutants such as antibiotics and pesticides often occur together in wastewater, agricultural runoff, and other human-impacted environments. Yet their effects on host-associated microbial communities are typically studied one compound at a time.

My research asks how combined pollutant exposure reshapes microbiomes and influences the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). More broadly, this project examines resistance as an outcome of interacting chemical, ecological, and evolutionary pressures rather than as a feature of single bacterial species in isolation.

The long-term goal of this work is to better understand how realistic pollutant mixtures affect microbial communities and host health, and to improve how environmental contributors to AMR are studied in wildlife and other host-associated systems.

This research is ongoing.