Exploring the diversity, impact, and limits of life on Earth and beyond…
Beebe Hydrothermal Vent Field Mid-Cayman Spreading Center Caribbean Sea, 4960 m depth
Microbes are tiny, yet they play a critical role in our quest to answer some of science’s most fundamental questions: How did biology begin, billions of years ago? Could life exist beyond Earth, in the martian subsurface or the watery realms of the “ocean worlds”? How do microbial communities shape our planet’s fundamental processes, from climate regulation to elemental cycles that establish habitability for the rest of us?
The Marlow Lab, housed in the Biology Department at Boston University, works at the intersection of environmental microbiology and geobiology to contribute to these foundational questions. From active volcanoes to coastal salt marshes and deep-sea methane seeps, we probe the capabilities and biogeochemical roles of extreme microbial life using metabolic activity-based methods and in-place mineralogical analyses. By developing new tools to study the ways in which microbial communities and their environments interact, we seek to enhance our understanding of how biology is structured, building from an energetic context to inter-organism interactions, cell-specific activity profiles, and emergent functions.
Featured Research Projects
Chilean Methane Seeps
Mineralogy & Microhabitats
Polymetallic Nodule Microbiome
See our Research Projects page to learn more about past and present projects in the Marlow Lab
Meet Dr. Jeffrey Marlow
Dr. Marlow is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Boston University. He received his B.S. from Washington University in St. Louis (2007), M.Phil. from Imperial College London as a Marshall Scholar (2010), and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (2016). He completed his postdoctoral research at Harvard University.
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Research // Dr. Marlow is interested in understanding how complex microbial communities shape and are shaped by their environments, particularly in the context of carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen metabolism in coastal salt marshes, seafloor methane seeps, hydrothermal vents, and polymetallic nodule fields. By focusing on culture-independent assessments of metabolic activity, his lab’s research clarifies the ecological roles of organisms working in concert. By working across a range of systems, generalizable principles of life’s interactions with its environment can inform the search for life beyond Earth.
Science Policy // As a member of the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative, Dr. Marlow co-leads the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction working group to provide scientifically rigorous advice to diplomats crafting and administering the United Nations’ “High Seas Treaty”.
Science Journalism & Communication // Dr. Marlow shares stories of world-changing science through his journalistic work. He has written for publications including The New York Times, Wired Magazine, Scientific American, and The New Yorker, and is the author of the forthcoming book, The Dark Frontier: Unlocking the Secrets of the Deep Sea, to be published in April 2026.
Education & Outreach // Sharing the scientific process and its ability to empower knowledge-seekers from all walks of life is an exciting part of being a scientist. With this in mind, Dr. Marlow founded the Ad Astra Academy, an education non-profit that uses the inspirational power of exploration to instill a sustainable passion for learning among middle school students around the world.
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Dr. Marlow has been named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, a Frontiers of Science Fellow, and a Rolex Explorer. He is a Fellow of The Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society. He enjoys traveling, trail running, and fretting over the health of his house plants.
Our Team
Postdoctoral scholar Dr. Federica Calabrese received her B.S. and M.S. from Messina University in Italy, and her Ph.D. in Germany, doing research at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, before spending two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Girguis lab at Harvard University. Dr. Calabrese is passionate about microorganisms and their connections with their surroundings. Her research aims to investigate the interactions between microbes and minerals, and to clarify how they shape the energetic landscape within their ecosystems, using imaging techniques, molecular targeting approaches, and spectroscopy analysis. She loves traveling, cycling, and cooking.
PhD student Peter Schroedl received his B.S. in Earth Sciences from the University of Minnesota in 2017. Peter has extensive experience in labs and in the field, studying extremophiles in the deep sea and the stratosphere, and examining 3.4-billion-year-old rocks in the Australian Outback. His thesis work combines detailed geobiological studies of methane seep carbonates, polymetallic nodules, and stromatolites. Always up for an adventure, Peter keeps an open mind to new experiences, methods, and techniques. He deeply values sharing knowledge with others, and has taught students of all ages in planetariums, public school programs, laboratories, museums, and outreach events.
PhD student Dylan Mankel received his B.S. in Astrophysics and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Michigan State University, where he isolated microorganisms from samples collected from the Lost City Hydrothermal Field. Later, at the NASA Ames Research Center, he compiled thousands of organism-level metabolic rates to compare with energy consumption estimates of the global biosphere. At BU, Dylan strives to understand the relationships between microbes and their local habitats to determine the limits of life at pH and temperature extremes in extraterrestrial analog environments. He enjoys hiking, scuba diving, sailing, and finding the best bagel shop in town.
PhD student Erin Frates received her B.S. in Cell & Molecular Biology from the University of Rhode Island, where she studied benthic microbial ecology in Narragansett Bay. After graduating in 2020, she worked at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, collecting and processing environmental DNA to investigate biodiversity in the Ocean Twilight Zone. In the Marlow Lab, Erin’s research has focused on carbon cycling in coastal salt marshes and methane dynamics in newly-discovered deep-sea methane seeps off the coast of Chile. Erin enjoys theatre, music, and traveling.
Laboratory technician Jules Fillion received his B.A. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Boston University in 2022. Following graduation, Jules worked at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, where he curated deep-sea coral specimens. He later joined the Girguis Lab at Harvard University, where he investigated the exometabolome of iron-oxidizing bacteria and contributed to the development of a deep-sea lander. In the Marlow Lab, his research examines how microbial communities at methane seeps generate spatial biosignatures that inform the history of life on Earth and other planetary bodies. Outside of the lab, Jules enjoys climbing, scuba diving, and seeing live music.
Undergraduate researcher Paul Bae is a Biology major and a Marine Science minor in the class of 2027 at Boston University. He currently studies the microbial ecology of Chilean methane seeps, and is developing enhanced approaches for concentrating syntrophic consortia of anaerobic methanotrophic archaea and sulfate reducing bacteria. Paul is broadly interested in deep-sea ecology, and is also contributing to projects centered around metabolic activity measurements and microbial oxygen production. Outside of the lab, he enjoys drawing, finding good food, and spending time outdoors.
Lab Alumni
Brett Kahmann (Ph.D. Graduate Student, Rotation, 2025)
Dillon Scott (Ph.D. Graduate Student, Rotation, 2025)
Holly Gustavsen (Undergraduate Researcher 2023-2025)
Benedetta D’Elia (Ph.D. Graduate Student, Rotation, 2024)
Jiayi Li (M.A. Graduate Student 2023-2024)
Sandra Molnar (Undergraduate Researcher 2023-2024)
Dr. Paul Rousteau (Postdoctoral Scholar 2022-2024)
Claire Andrade (Research Technician 2022-2024)
Yasheng Marhaba (Undergraduate Researcher 2022-2024)
Gaby Bussiere (Undergraduate Researcher 2022)
Claire Momjian (Undergraduate Researcher 2021-2023)
Michael Silverstein (Ph.D. Graduate Student, Rotation, 2021)
Maria Ingersoll (Ph.D. Graduate Student, Rotation, 2021)
Maggie Alter (Undergraduate Researcher 2021-2022)
Devin Manzoori (Undergraduate Researcher 2020-2022)
Akshata Shukla (Undergraduate Researcher 2020-2022)
News from the Lab
Coming soon…
Recent & Upcoming Events
See you there?
March 5-7, 2026 // U.S. Frontiers of Science Symposium // Irvine, CA
March 11-12, 2026 // National Academy of Sciences New Voices meeting // Washington, D.C.
May 17-22, 2026 // Astrobiology Science Conference // Madison, WI