Vaughn Cooper
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Ecology & Evolution
Bacteria can evolve remarkably fast, sometimes within days. When they grow as biofilms, which are sticky communities attached to surfaces, populations quickly diversify into new types, and these types can be seen as different colony shapes on a plate.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Microbiology & Immunology
Education Research
- Topics
experimental evolution
microbial evolution
biofilm
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2028
What they work on
- Train 18 middle and high school teachers in research on how Pseudomonas bacteria evolve during biofilm growth, using genome sequencing to find mutations that cause distinct colony shapes.
- Study how biofilm adaptations protect bacteria from predation by the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, building on teacher and student findings that biofilms provide this survival benefit.
- Measure whether the program raises teacher confidence in running classroom experiments, and whether students' attitudes and self-efficacy toward biotechnology-related science improve after the week-long biofilm evolution curriculum.
More about the research
This speed makes biofilm evolution both a scientific puzzle and a way for students to watch evolution happen.
Why it matters
Teaching how microbes evolve helps students overcome common misconceptions about evolution and genetics. This program gives teachers and students aged 12 and up hands-on lab experience relevant to biotechnology careers. The research also adds to understanding of how biofilms protect bacteria from predators such as amoebae.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Suzanne Taylor
Montana State University, MT·Education Research
Examine how a three-year professional learning system changes rural third- through fifth-grade teachers' pedagogical design capacity, their ability to adapt science lessons around locally and culturally significant place-based phenomena.
Karen Hollebrands
North Carolina State University, NC·Education Research
Create online modules with high-demand geometry tasks, video cases and grades 6–12 student work that prepare future teachers to lead productive discussions using web-based dynamic geometry tools.
Kari O'Connell
Oregon State University, OR·Education Research
Deploy formal and informal educators to the Arctic and Antarctic through the Polar Educators program, with linked virtual experiences, to inspire teaching that blends art-based and science-based methods.
The school
University of Pittsburgh: 83 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 403 research doctorates a year.
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