How Oxygen-intolerant Microbes Navigate an Oxygen-filled World
Presented by Lindsey Backman, Valhalla Fellow, Whitehead Institute
Moderated by Tobiloba Oni, Valhalla Fellow, Whitehead Institute

Despite living in an oxygen-filled world, oxygen-intolerant bacteria are abundant within us and around us: in the human microbiome, the soil, and marine environments. Whitehead Fellow Lindsey Backman will discuss her lab’s mission to determine molecular tactics that enable bacteria to cope with varying levels of oxygen and oxidative stress. And she'll explain how studying these protective mechanisms could lead to the design of new antibiotics and effective methods of engineering probiotics.

Free and open to all. Visit wi.mit.edu/events for details and to register.

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Lindsey Backman Bio
​​​​​​​Backman received her PhD in chemistry from MIT in 2022, having earned a bachelor of science in chemistry, summa cum laude, from the University of Florida in 2015. As an undergraduate, she received honors including the University of Florida Presidential Service and University Scholars awards. She also participated in HHMI’s Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP) and its Capstone Award program – which both enable students from underrepresented backgrounds to work with a university professor to pursue summer research projects. Through those programs and the MIT Summer Research Program, she worked for two summers as a research assistant in the lab of Catherine Drennan, MIT professor of chemistry and biology and HHMI Investigator, who subsequently became Backman’s PhD advisor.