Dan’s PhD project focuses on co-metabolism of a phototroph-heterotroph consortium and its biodegradation of polluting agent groups found in wastewater. He has isolated and enriched a cyanobacteria that has been found to be part of the microorganism community in a treatment reactor, and is profiling its growth as part of a two-species biofilm with Pseudomonas putida. To accomplish this he is using a novel bacterial flow chamber design, coupled with oxygen micro-sensing and microscopy techniques with analytical HPLC. His goal is to understand the mechanisms that govern this micro-ecological system, and apply a model to explain it.