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Palmer Lab of Chemical Ecology and Astrobiology

Palmer Lab of Chemical Ecology and Astrobiology

We work at the interface of biology and chemistry to develop solutions to some of the challenging problems of the coming century. Among these challenges are the issues of food safety and security for a growing population, forced to grow crops in nutrient poor soils. Due to global climate change, pollution, and other factors, this population also faces new challenges from the microbial world such as increases in the frequency of toxic algal blooms and antibiotic resistant bacteria, as well as declines in coral reef populations due to bleaching and disease. Many of these challenges overlap with concerns of sustainability and food safety/security faced by current astronauts as well as future off-world colonies on Mars, the Moon, and beyond.

Lab News

January 15th 

Palmer Lab undergraduate research Hannah Blackburn is Relentless!  See her video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRKhNNvj0VU&feature=youtu.be 

January 9th 

Congratulations to our honorary lab member Pooja Shah who has been recognized in the Regeneron Science Talent Search! 
While Pooja is still in high school she has taken her work from our lab and competed at the International Science and Engineering Fair and is already a published author! Congrats!

December 21st

Check out Palmer Lab Undergrad Hannah Blackburn, interviewed for her thoughts on the first all female spacewalk! https://www.fox35orlando.com/…/worlds-1st-female-spacewalki…

NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir exited the International Space Station on Friday, the first time in a half-century of spacewalking that a woman floated out without a male crewmate. Their job is to fix a broken part of the station's solar power network.news

December 16th

Congratulations to lab member Eric Ziegler for winning the outstanding graduate student award for the Orlando chapter of the ACS!

November 22nd

Congratulations to Master’s student Greg Belson who successfully defended his thesis proposal!

September 5th

Check out our recent publication in the European Journal of Organic Chemistry on the hydrolysis of acyl-L-homoserine lactones!  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/…/abs/10.1002/ejoc.201900322