Welcome to the Cavanaugh Lab!

Our research focuses on microbial symbioses in light of ecology and evolution.  We emphasize bacteria-animal associations including the characterization of metabolic and genetic capabilities of symbionts, evolutionary relationships with free-living bacteria, and host/symbiont interactions.  Detailed studies of chemosynthetic symbioses with marine invertebrates from deep-sea hydrothermal vents, methane seeps, and coastal reducing sediments have served to expand our understandings of diversity, transmission strategies, and host-symbiont interactions.

This research has extended from marine symbioses to the characterization of the microbiomes of human and wild animals (e.g., birds) and their role in the host's health and disease. Studies include addressing questions on the co-diversification of the gut microbiome of Darwin’s finches and ecological and evolutionary aspects of the human oral microbiome.