Rebecca Vega Thurber: The coral doctor

Vega Thurber and her colleagues at SDSU used metagenomics to sequence all of the nucleic acids in stromatolites—layered structures containing ancient bacterial mats thought to be one of the oldest communities on Earth.² More than 97% of the viruses they recovered from these mats had never before been recorded. “The viruses that we collected were more different than anything we’ve ever looked at…ever,” Vega Thurber said. Even more puzzling, “stromatolites that were right next to each other didn’t share any viruses in common,” suggesting an unusual level of biogeographical variability.

Vega Thurber also used metagenomics to sequence almost 15 million genetic fragments from nine biomes, including the ocean.³ “The viruses contained a lot of genes that were unexpected,” Vega Thurber said, including accessory genes, such as mobility or photosynthesis genes, that may benefit the microbes. Intrigued by the role viruses play in marine communities, Vega Thurber aims to go beyond cataloging viruses to determine how they impact their hosts. “About 30% of coral death is attributed to disease,” she says, but the etiology of those diseases is still unknown.

While at SDSU, Vega Thurber took younger students under her wing, advising them, collaborating on projects, and taking them into the field. “She’s a great mentor [and] a really great example of a woman in science who’s no nonsense,” says Dana Willner, a graduate student at SDSU who worked with Vega Thurber. “It was very clear that she would soon be running her own lab.”

Vega Thurber recently made this prediction a reality, accepting a faculty position at Florida International University. Currently, she employs only her lab tech, Rory Welsh, but two graduate students will join her this fall.

“She can pretty much take the research anywhere she wants,” Welsh says. “She’s open to other people having their own ideas, and she has an endless supply of her own ideas—it’s just a matter of picking one and going for it.”