Johannes Keegstra

Profile

Johannes Keegstra is a Royal Society Newton International Fellow working in the research group of Conrad Mullineaux. Previously, he was a postdoc and then senior researcher in the Environmental Microfluidics Group at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. His earlier training was received in the Netherlands, first in physics (BS/MS) at Delft University of Technology and philosophy (BA) at the University of Leiden, and then biophysics (PhD) from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Research

Research Interests:

I'm interested in how bacteria thrive in aquatic environments. Aquatic environments are often highly heterogeneous, where sparse nutrient-rich hotspots are surrounded by mostly nutrient-poor waters, leading many bacteria to experience repeated cycles of feast and famine. I have investigated how bacteria navigate these nutrient land- or seascapes using traits like motility and chemotaxis. At Queen Mary, I am focussing on investigating the interactions between oxygen-producing cyanobacteria and oxygen-consuming heterotrophic bacteria, mainly using microscopy and microfluidics. The interaction between these type micro-organisms plays a large role in determining how much carbon is sequestered from the atmosphere and stored in deep waters.

Publications

For publications, see Google scholar