The Norwich Research Park has world-leading research in molecular and environmental microbiology centred around biogeochemical cycles that underpin life on Earth in the terrestrial, freshwater and marine environment.
We study key microbes in the carbon cycle that grow on climate active gases such as methane and isoprene, bacteria and archaea involved in major steps in the nitrogen cycle such as denitrification and nitrification, microbes that are important in the sulfur cycle and the role of metals in key enzymes involved in these microbial processes.
Research ranges from discovery of new microorganisms and their characterisation at the physiological, biochemical and molecular/genome level through to the use of molecular ecology techniques such as metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and stable isotope probing to determine which microbes are carrying out these processes in the environment and to understand the molecular mechanisms regulating their activity.