Marc Chevrette, an Assistant Professor in the Plant Pathology Department, has embodied interdisciplinary work throughout his academic career. He began on the east coast, growing up in Coventry, Rhode Island and majoring in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He received his Master’s in Bioengineering at Harvard Extension and remained working for industry startups before moving to UW-Madison for an MSc and PhD in Genetics and postdoctoral training at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.
His current research focuses on microbes. “Microbes are the best chemists in the world,” remarks Chevrette. “If we can better understand the ecology and evolution behind their chemical communication in complex communities, we can inform rational strategies to find new drugs and other useful molecules.”
Chevrette was recently hired as a faculty member through the RISE-EARTH initiative which focuses on boosting environmental sustainability research. While looking forward to the collaborative culture at UW more broadly, Chevrette will also get to apply his plethora of skills in this new role.
“I’m most excited about the interdisciplinarity of RISE. We bring new, nature inspired ways to discover new molecules to fuel the bioeconomic pipeline.”
What are the main goals of your research?
Our research focuses on the ecology and evolution of the genes that encode secondary metabolism and how microbial metabolites shape microbiome interaction networks. Microbiomes of disease-burdened hosts are a major focus, spanning from amphibians to insects to agricultural crops. We deploy both computational and experimental approaches to describe the eco-evo dynamics of bacteria and the genes that assemble their secondary metabolites.
What are the big-picture questions and significance of this work?
Common questions we ask are:
- What bacterial conversations are happening in host-associated microbiomes?
- What are the molecules that mediate these interactions?
- How do microbes assemble these molecules?
- How does community structure influence secondary metabolite-mediated interactions?
- How does the diversity and distribution of different biosynthetic pathways vary across hosts, geographies, or environmental contexts?
- Where should we look to find new antibiotics and other bioactive secondary metabolites?
- How can we best integrate genomic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, and other large data sets to uncover the underlying principles of interspecies interactions in microbiomes?
Our research aims to address these questions by connecting the evolution of biosynthetic gene clusters and their chemical products to their functional ecology. This is currently explored in two major research areas: 1) reductionist, experimental systems to gain mechanistic insight, and 2) naturally occurring, host-associated microbiomes. Furthermore, our computational analyses and methods inform our experimental hypotheses and vice versa. This integrative approach allows us to be very collaborative across disciplines.
Is there a single person, event, or experience that most influenced your trajectory to where you are today?
My postdoctoral mentor, Jo Handelsman, profoundly influenced my scientific trajectory. Working in her lab at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery shaped how I think about microbial communities from reductionist experimentation to systems-level understanding in addition to inspiring my commitment to mentoring and inclusive research culture. Her approach to bridging fundamental microbiology with discovery-driven innovation continues to guide my own lab’s mentorship philosophy.