Darcy Mishkind

Darcy is a postdoc in the Baum lab, interested in exploring the cell biology of Asgard archaea in microbial communities. She hopes to answer questions such as what resources are shared between cells, the mechanisms behind sharing, and how partnerships are selected. Further, she hopes to test how different partnerships may alter community tolerance to environmental stressors. As the eukaryotic cell is understood to have evolved through the merging of an Asgard archaeal cell and an alphaproteobacterial cell, asking questions about Asgard archaeal cell interactions also aims to shed light on the process of eukaryogenesis. Previously, in her graduate studies, Darcy studied the evolution and development of the avian syrinx, and is interested in questions that span evolutionary and molecular biology.