{"id":491,"date":"2021-08-10T16:34:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T16:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/people\/esm\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T13:44:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T13:44:26","slug":"esm","status":"publish","type":"person","link":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/people\/esm\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our interests include\u00a0the molecular biology and genomics of bacteria and bacteriophages. Bacteriophages are the single most abundant biological entities on earth, with estimates of over 10<sup>31<\/sup>\u00a0in number. \u00a0Over several years, our experience has included working with phages that infect\u00a0<em>E. coli<\/em>, <em>Salmonella<\/em>, <em>Bacillus<\/em>, <em>Vibrio<\/em>, <em>Mycobacterium<\/em>\u00a0and currently\u00a0<em>Paenibacillus larvae<\/em>, a pathogen of honey bees that causes American Foulbrood Disease (AFB). \u00a0Phage genomics is extremely tractable since phage can be relatively easily isolated, the current cost of DNA sequencing is low, and assembly and annotation of phage genomes is readily learned and accomplished. \u00a0Graduate students and undergraduates can participate in a variety of projects with fairly short learning curves. \u00a0We pursue\u00a0<em>P. larvae<\/em>\u00a0phage isolation, genome characterization and analysis of specific phage gene and protein functions of interest. \u00a0Some of this work could impact our understanding and treatment of AFB.<\/p>\n<div class=\"biography\">\n<p>We also have microbiology projects involving collaborators on campus that include studies of novel tetrapyrroles (tolyporphins) produced by filamentous cyanobacteria (with Dr. Jon Lindsey), the enzymes of isobutylene catabolism by\u00a0<em>Mycobacterium<\/em> sp. ELW1 (with Dr. Michael Hyman), and indicators of disease in honey bees (with Dr. David Tarpy). Students and research scientists at all levels are involved in this work. Contact us at any time if you\u2019d like to discuss one of these projects.<\/p>\n<p>Our undergraduate research program funded by the USDA, <a href=\"https:\/\/harvest.cals.ncsu.edu\/beemore\/\"><em>BeeMORE: Bees and microbes in organized research and extension<\/em><\/a>, provides underrepresented students in science and agriculture from across the country an opportunity to participate in hands-on research and professional development.<\/p>\n<p>We are no longer accepting new students.<\/p>\n<p>Websites we visit:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asm.org\/\">American Society for Microbiology<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/research-collections\/laboratories\/genomics-microbiology-lab\">Genomics &amp; Microbiology Research Lab at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asm.org\/Podcasts\/BacterioFiles\">BacterioFiles, the podcast for microbe lovers (from NCSU PhD graduate Jesse Noar)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/seaphages.org\/\">SEA-PHAGES, HHMI Science Education Alliance<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/rast.nmpdr.org\/\">The RAST server<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.habitatwake.org\/\">Habitat for Humanity<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/foodbankcenc.org\/\">Food Bank NC<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/elpueblo.org\/\">El Pueblo<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billystrings.com\/music\/renewal\">Billy Strings, IBMA guitar player of the year (2021)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Courses taught:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>MB(GN) 758 Microbial Genetics and Genomics\u00a0<\/strong>(Spring; Graduate)<\/li>\n<li><strong>MB(BIT) 210 Phage Hunters\u00a0<\/strong>(on hiatus)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":522,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"group":[23],"person_tag":[],"class_list":["post-491","person","type-person","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","group-emeriti"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/person"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1965,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/491\/revisions\/1965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/group?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"person_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/microbiology-graduate-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person_tag?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}