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Taking a Closer Look

March 15, 2017

WHOI research assistant Luis Valentin-Alvarado examines a petri dish for colonies of E. coli. The bacteria have been made to produce large quantities of peptide standards—short amino acid chains—from the proteins of marine microbes. Working with WHOI biogeochemist Mak Saito, Valentin-Alvarado will use the peptide standards in metaproteomic research to identify many of the proteins found in specific marine environments, such as the tropical Pacific or sea ice.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)