The focus of research in the Chisholm Laboratory is the marine cyanobacterium, Prochlorococcus – the most abundant photosynthetic cell on the planet. Over the past few decades we have been developing Prochlorococcus as a model system for cross-scale systems biology, studying not only the genetic diversity of the global “collective” but also its unctional and ecological implications. We are motivated by the perspective that it is higher order interactions within and among populations, and adaptations along environmental gradients, that shape the information that encodes the machinery of life. As such, we use Prochlorococcus as a guide to help us understand the forces from which living systems emerge.

Watch Penny’s 2018 TED talk titled “The tiny creature that secretly powers the planet” 

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