Sabeeha Merchant, senior faculty scientist in the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, has received an Investigator Award from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Merchant, who is also Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology and of Plant and Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley, will receive five years of unrestricted support to pursue innovative, risky research that has a high potential for significant conceptual and methodological advances in aquatic symbiosis.
The awards to Merchant and 14 other international scientists are meant to serve as the flagship for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Symbiosis in Aquatic Systems Initiative, which was launched in 2019. By bringing together different research communities to learn how symbioses involving microorganisms function, evolve, and serve critical ecosystem roles in marine and freshwater environments, the collective research is expected to move the community toward a more comprehensive understanding of aquatic symbioses.
To learn more about the initiative and the investigators, read the Moore Foundation press release.
