Nikhil Malvankar is an associate professor (term) of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at the Microbial Sciences Institute. He is fascinated by how environmentally- and clinically-important microbes respire without oxygen by exhaling electrons via hair-like appendages called nanowires. He works on nanowires’ structures, functions, and electron transfer mechanisms. Nikhil’s interdisciplinary team is developing novel technologies to define the mechanisms by which microbes interact with and manipulate their environment, with the ultimate goal of engineering these interactions to control microbial pathophysiology and ecology. As the second most abundant hydrocarbon in the earth’s atmosphere, methane is a major driver of increasing global temperatures. Over 50% of atmospheric methane comes from microbes that can also break down 80% of methane from ocean sediments. Nikhil’s team aims to harness protein nanowires to inhibit methane production and promote methane consumption. The team has developed methods to measure and image extracellular electron transfer in living microbial communities and has found a novel form of microbial respiration called direct interspecies electron transfer involving nanowires made of polymerized cytochromes. This project employs genomics, imaging, and modeling tools to identify strategies to control the microbial activity responsible for methane production. Please check out his research at The Malvankar Lab.
