Rebecca Gast
Biologist Rebecca Gast uses molecular methods to study the microscopic
ocean. An Associate Scientist in theWHOI Biology Department, she
examines the ecology of single-celled non-bacterial organisms, or
protists in the marine environment. Her work is often based in the
Antarctic, where she studies protists in seawater, sea ice, and slush.
She is interested in their diversity, distribution, and abundance, and
how their proteins function in the extreme cold. Becky received her
Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular Genetics at Ohio State
University in 1994, and then came to WHOI as a Postdoctoral Scholar,
where she has remained, keeping warm between visits to the ice and
slush. In other projects, she studies symbiotic relationships of
protistswhere they occur and how they function. She is developing
techniques to detect human pathogenic organisms (Giardia and Cryptosporidium) and invertebrate parasites (Quahog Parasite Unknown or QPX, a parasite in clams) in coastal ocean waters.
