Colleen Hui selected as a Graduate Scholar at LLNL

Third-year Ph.D. student Colleen Hui from Merchant lab has been selected as a Graduate Scholar at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Funded by LLNL, the Livermore Graduate Scholar Program allows participants to gain hands-on experience with the cutting-edge instruments available at LLNL, and to apply them toward solving problems in the context of questions that are addressed in their dissertation research. For the next three to four years, Colleen will be working jointly with LLNL staff physicist Dr. Peter Weber and microbiologist/senior scientist Dr. Jennifer Pett-Ridge, as well as other members of Merchant lab, to understand iron homeostasis in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Specifically, Colleen will be using LLNL’s unique nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (nanoSIMS) capability to distinguish the iron storage site in Chlamydomonas cells, and to analyze the dynamics of intracellular iron movement. The outcome of this project will provide a better understanding on trace metal utilization in a model alga for sustainable biofuel production.