Most students are familiar with the fact that there are IU professors involved in research. However, I was curious to find out what led them to start pursuing research. Take Dr. Kehoe for example, who is a professor with many talents. Known as a dedicated molecular biology professor and an Olympian rower, here is an overview of the start of his research journey.
Dr Kehoe’s interest in biology and research started by exploring and observing nature. He grew up in Puerto Rico living near a bay, and he spent most of his time exploring the outdoors. “I got fascinated with nature and living things there, and that has never changed”, Dr. Kehoe noted. From then on, his passion for biology and research began to grow.
His first research experience occurred when he was 14 years old. After moving to San Diego, California, he applied and got accepted to a high school internship program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where they only selected four high school students per year. At the Scripps Institution, he got to perform entitled ecology research under the tutelage of graduate students.
Then, his turning point towards his present research occurred as a graduate student at UCLA. He attended a seminar and met a Stanford researcher discussing how cyanobacteria can sense different colors of light. Dr. Kehoe learned how cyanobacteria could “sense the ratio of green and red light and respond to those colors by changing their cell physiology completely”. This process is known as chromatic acclimation, where cyanobacteria can change colors based on the color of light exposed. For example, they can turn red when exposed to green light, and vice versa. Fascinated by this experience, Dr. Kehoe did a postdoc with the researcher, where he studied how the cyanobacteria perform this process at a molecular level. Dr. Kehoe noted he was “curious to know if they had photoreceptors similar to plants or humans” to help detect light color. Pursuing and discovering a new type of photoreceptor helped Dr. Kehoe get a job here at Indiana University.
Currently, Dr. Kehoe’s research at IU focuses on how photosynthetic organisms, such as cyanobacteria, sense and respond to the environment. His lab studies how cyanobacteria sense blue and green light, and how they can change their cellular physiology with transcription and protein abundance. He also is exploring the signal transduction pathways of cyanobacteria.
“I was fascinated about how photosynthetic bacteria could not just use light for photosynthesis, but they could actually use it for information [for detecting] what colors of light are out there”, Dr. Kehoe said.
Advanced biotechnology applications are also being applied to better understand these microorganisms. One example is detecting photoreceptors with optogenetics, where you “use light to turn on and off genes in various ways and cell types”. Researchers hope this advancement in genetic engineering can allow them to create new, synthetic organisms.
Most people aren’t familiar with the importance of cyanobacteria in our ecological world today. “They are super important for the global carbon and oxygen cycles, and the two we are currently studying are the two most abundant photosynthetic organism on Earth”. Cyanobacteria also have a similar role in producing oxygen compared to trees and grasslands, with the “two most abundant genera Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus responsible for 25% of this productivity”, Dr Kehoe states.
Cyanobacteria have also been around for billions of years, where they were responsible for converting our planet from an anoxic environment to an oxygen-filled environment. Overall, Dr. Kehoe hopes studying these fascinating microorganisms can help us appreciate their relevance and how they are impacted by global issues, such as climate change and global warming.
Banner image: A close up of Dr. Kehoe’s lab where cyanobacteria are exposed to different colored light.