Oliveira Lab Hosts Dr. He Fu, NC A&T Biology

On August 28, the Oliveira Lab hosted Dr. He "Andrew" Fu, Assistant Professor of Biology at NC A&T, for a visit and discussion of his group's work.

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The Fu Lab studies how microbial communities interact and respond to changing environments, and how that ecology can be put to work. The project that stood out to us: developing cockroaches as living bioreactors for microplastic degradation. The insect gut already hosts a dense microbial consortium capable of breaking down difficult substrates, and the lab is asking whether that consortium can be directed at plastics. It reframes a pest as a waste-processing platform.

His group also works on environmental microbiomes linked to climate processes and on soil phages as tools for microbial control and biotechnology. We are excited about the collaborations that could come out of this visit.

Thanks to Dr. Fu for the visit, and to Dr. Sam Oliveira for hosting.

More on his lab: https://www.hefulab.org/