Meet Superfund Trainee Lauren Redfern!

The Duke Superfund Research Translation Core video series highlights the work of our researchers. Our next video features doctoral candidate Lauren Redfern.

Lauren is a member of Dr. Claudia Gunsch’s lab, which is the home of Project 5: Bacterial-fungal Amendments for Bioremediation of Contaminated Sediments. Her research is focused on how to exploit natural adaptation techniques to improve bioremediation, particularly focusing on Superfund sites and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). She is also looking at changes in microbiomes in response to chronic exposure to PAHs at different Superfund sites.

Lauren discusses her science outreach work with K-12 audiences and the broader implications of her work at the Duke University Superfund Research Center. Redfern was awarded the 2015 NIEHS K.C. Donnelly Award for her research, which allowed her to work under the mentorship of Dr. Lisa Alvarez-Cohen at UC-Berkeley, where she ran a set of microcosm experiments to monitor and optimize bacteria for bioremediation.

Lauren will defend her doctoral dissertation this summer. 

Watch the video here: