Question: What type of bacteria are you studying now?

Delma Childers answered on 6 Jan 2016:

Hi phguan! We study several different species in the lab. Right now I work mainly on Sphingomonas desiccabilis, which was first discovered in a desert nearly 10 years ago. We have also worked with Bacillus subtilis, which is a somewhat popular model to work with for certain bacteria. Both of these organisms are easy to store dried down for long periods of time, and this can be good if launches are delayed. And I’ve grown Cupriavidus metallidurans on occasion. All three of these organisms will be used on our ISS experiment, which seeks to understand how these organisms grow in space and martian conditions compared to Earth and how well they perform one task in particular – mining rock for elements. This will all help us better understand how different gravity regimens affect microbe-liquid-solid interactions.