Justine Albers

Biography

After graduating with a B.A. in Biology from Swarthmore College in 2017, Justine studied microbes in the open ocean and coastal kelp forests as a technician in the Santoro and Wilbanks labs at UCSB. She then characterized novel gene-editing enzymes from uncultivated microbes as a research associate at biotech startup Metagenomi, before returning to Santa Barbara to start her PhD. 

Research

Justine’s research in the Santoro lab focuses on microbes living in open ocean oxygen minimum zones and deep ocean hydrothermal vent plumes. She is interested in coupling bioinformatics with genome-engineering of cultured marine bacteria and archaea to quantify microbial metabolisms in these extreme environments.