Bridget Hegarty

Validation of shoe sole dust as a microbial sampler reveals distinct fungal and bacterial responses to nearby vegetation

This study validates shoe sole dust as a microbial sampler, showing bacterial and fungal communities respond differently to vegetation proximity and greenness metrics.

Tracking Microcystis viruses and infection dynamics across distinct phases of a Microcystis-dominated bloom

The paper uses metagenomic analysis and machine learning to study viral diversity and infection dynamics in Microcystis blooms, revealing broad host ranges and environmental adaptations.

Development of a quantitative metagenomic approach to establish quantitative limits and its application to viruses

The paper develops QuantMeta, a tool to quantify absolute abundances in metagenomes, and applies it to detect and measure DNA viruses in wastewater.

Benchmarking informatics approaches for virus discovery: Caution is needed when combining in silico identification methods

The paper benchmarks 63 viral identification rulesets on mock metagenomes and aquatic samples, finding that combining rules increases recall but also false positives, with some combinations achieving high accuracy.