LAS CRUCES – Two biology professors at New Mexico State University were awarded a nearly $800,000 three-year NASA grant to study how biological changes in bacteria affect complex organisms.
NMSU Regents Professor Michele Nishiguchiand assistant professor Maria Castillo are both in the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. Nishiguchi specializes in microbial ecology research while Castillo’s research has focused primarily on comparative invertebrate immunology in squids.
“NASA has an exobiology program to look at the evolution of life on Earth, as well as on other planets and how life may have existed and could exist again on other planets,” Nishiguchi said.
Nishiguchi and Castillo intend to conduct their research by experimenting on how altered Vibrio bacteria affect host squids.
Michele K. Nishiguchi, PhD
