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Research Interests
Research in my laboratory is focused on the physiology, ecology and evolution of prokaryotes that inhabit geothermal environments. The overarching objective of my research revolves on the question: “how did microbial metabolism evolve?” Anaerobic, thermophilic Bacteria and Archaea that inhabit deep-sea geothermal environments and make a living off volcanic gases carry both ancestral and more recently acquired traits (genes and enzymes) and can be used as models to reconstruct early metabolism. In my laboratory we devote a considerable effort to “domesticate” some of the most fascinating organisms on our planet, and to use them as models to understand the evolution of early metabolism and the adaptations to environments that resemble the early Earth.
Short History
Costa Vetriani is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and a member of the Institute of Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, and the director of the Microbiology Undergraduate Program at Rutgers University. He began his research activity in a clinical microbiology lab and, as a PhD student, he was trained as a prokaryotic molecular geneticist. Since 1996 Costa Vetriani participated either as research or chief scientist in over 20 oceanographic expeditions in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and in the Mediterranean Sea, and dove in the Deep-Submergence Vehicle Alvin many times. Costa Vetriani is a passionate SCUBA diver and underwater photographer. For more information about Costa Vetriani’s research, visit the Deep-Sea Microbiology Lab website.
Teaching Efforts
Undergraduate
General Microbiology 11:680:390
Seminar in Microbiology 11:680:645
Graduate
Microbial Life 16:682:501