Mak Saito

In the Saito group we study the role of metals used by life, as well as the distribution and processes affecting the those metals in the marine environment. We focus on the bioactive metals cobalt, iron, zinc, cadmium and nickel, and their involvement in metalloenzymes, vitamins, and proteins within the marine phytoplankton and bacterial cells. Using mass-spectrometry based proteomic and analytical chemistry methodologies to measure proteins and chemical species, we aim to unravel the interactions between these scarce nutritive metals and the microbial community in the modern ocean and during the co-evolution of life and the planet's biogeochemical cycles.