Kai Sun

Kai studies how the microbial cycling of abundant organosulfur compounds, such as the osmolyte DMSP, impacts other important metabolic processes in the host and the microbiome. He is using multi-omics and bioinformatics on marine samples and synthetic communities to uncover metabolic changes caused by DMSP catabolism and specifically the release of active compounds like DMS, MeSH and acrylate. His ultimate aim is to elucidate the ecological functions and environmental significance of organosulfur-mediated microbial interactions.