My name is Scott McCain, I’m a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow, co-advised by Dr. Gene-Wei Li at MIT in the Department of Biology and Dr. Mick Follows in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. I am interested in how microbes can transform the environments they live in (from inside the human gut, to large-scale ocean processes) and how to model these complex processes. I specifically use a combination of mathematical modelling, in situ observations of gene expression in complex communities (metatranscriptomics and metaproteomics), and culture-based experiments using model (and non-model!) bacteria to tackle these questions. I’m particularly interested in connecting processes at the level of gene expression to cellular and ecological outcomes.

During my PhD, I mostly studied photosynthetic, surface-dwelling marine microbes. I used a combination of in situ observations (metaproteomics and metatranscriptomics), and mathematical modelling, to explore how microbes behave. My PhD was been centered on understanding how trace metals like iron and manganese influence microbial proteomes, and in turn, impact large-scale biogeochemical processes in the ocean.

I did my undergraduate at Western University, and worked with Dr. Charlie Trick on harmful algal blooms and bio-optics. I then moved to Halifax to work with Dr. Heike Lotze studying historical marine ecology and fisheries. I had a brief stint with Dr. Chris Taggart in the Oceanography Department at Dalhousie as a research assistant, and then completed a PhD with Dr. Erin Bertrand at Dalhousie University in the Department of Biology.