Todd Rex Miller, PhD

Departmental Affiliation

Environmental Health Sciences
Division of Environmental Health Engineering


Center and Institute Affiliations
Johns Hopkins Center for Water and Health

Departmental Address

615 North Wolfe Street Room E6628
Baltimore, MD 21205

Email: trmiller@jhsph.edu

Research

It is estimated that a single gram of soil may contain up to 38,000 different species and only a miniscule fraction (<5%) can be cultured and studied in the laboratory. These bacteria represent an untouched potential for industrial applications and may hold answers to the most challenging biological and ecological questions in science today. My research seeks to tease apart these complex microbial communities using a combination of classical microbiology and advanced molecular and chemical analyses to identify bacteria and enzymes important for maintaining a healthy ecosystem, especially those involved in the degradation of harmful chemicals produced by human activity. This research may lead to novel bioremediation strategies and thus improve human health.

Keywords

Environmental microbiology, ecology, genomics