Rachel Dutton

Rachel Dutton is an American microbiologist. She has developed the microorganisms that live on cheese into a model system for complex interacting microbial communities. She has worked with chefs including Dan Felder, head of research and development at Momofuku to develop new fermentation procedures to be used in food[1][2] and has been called the "go-to microbiologist" for chefs and gastronomists.[3]

Professor

Rachel Dutton

Ph.D.
NationalityAmerican
Scientific career
InstitutionsHarvard University
University of California, San Diego
ThesisVitamin K epoxide reductase homologues provide an alternative pathway for bacterial disulfide bond formation (2010)
Doctoral advisorJon Beckwith
WebsiteLab Website

She is an assistant professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of California, San Diego.

Early life and education

Dutton grew up in South San Francisco, California. She earned her B.Sc. in molecular biology at the University of California, San Diego in 2002. She performed her Ph.D. work in the laboratory of Jon Beckwith at Harvard Medical School, graduating in 2010.

Career

In 2010, Dutton became an independent Bauer Fellow at Harvard University, where she initiated a study of the microbial communities that live on cheese and give cheeses their particular flavors.[4] She reasoned that cheese microbes would be less complex and more consistent than other microbial communities such as the gut microbiome or soil microorganisms,[5] and therefore act as a model system in which principles of microbial interactions in more complex communities and ecosystems could be investigated.[6] To begin her studies, she learned to make cheese herself, and collaborated with local artisan cheesemakers.[3][7] By sequencing the microorganisms found on 137 cheese rinds from 10 different countries, she identified 24 genera of bacteria and fungi that are dominant in cheese microbial communities.[8] She developed a microbiological culture system that mimics the normal conditions of community formation to reconstruct and manipulate the interactions between species in these communities, identifying widespread bacterial-fungal interactions.[8][9][10] She uses these cultures to investigate the genetic requirements for community interactions[11][12] and how horizontal gene transfer affects the genetic makeup of species in these communities.[13]

Dutton collaborates widely with chefs[1][2][3] and cheesemakers,[7] and has appeared in the Netflix documentary Cooked,[14] (episode 4[15]) the PBS documentary series The Mind of a Chef,[16] (season 1, episode 2[17]), and on the podcasts Science Friday[18] and Meet the Microbiologist.[19]

In 2015 Dutton moved to the University of California, San Diego, where she is an assistant professor in the Division of Biological Sciences, Section on Molecular Biology.[20][4]

Awards

References
  1. Smith, Peter Andrey (2012-05-16). "Momofuku Puts Mold, Bacteria on the Menu". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  2. Smith, Peter. "Fish Sauce, Ketchup and the Rewilding of Our Food". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  3. Smith, Peter Andrey (2012-09-17). "For Gastronomists, a Go-To Microbiologist". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  4. "Molecular biologist talks cheese". phys.org. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  5. Button, Julie E.; Dutton, Rachel J. (2012-08-07). "Cheese microbes". Current Biology. 22 (15): R587–589. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.06.014. ISSN 1879-0445. PMID 22877773.
  6. Wolfe, Benjamin E.; Dutton, Rachel J. (2013). "Towards an Ecosystem Approach to Cheese Microbiology". Microbiology Spectrum. 1 (1). doi:10.1128/microbiolspec.CM-0012-12. ISSN 2165-0497. PMID 26184819.
  7. Zimberoff, Larissa (2017-02-06). "Small Cheese Makers Invest in a Stinky Science". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  8. Wolfe, Benjamin E.; Button, Julie E.; Santarelli, Marcela; Dutton, Rachel J. (2014-07-17). "Cheese rind communities provide tractable systems for in situ and in vitro studies of microbial diversity". Cell. 158 (2): 422–433. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.041. ISSN 1097-4172. PMC 4222527. PMID 25036636.
  9. Miller, Greg (2014-07-31). "Scientists Uncover a Surprising World of Microbes in Cheese Rind". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  10. "Cheese-based research". Harvard Gazette. 2014-07-28. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  11. Morin, Manon; Pierce, Emily C.; Dutton, Rachel J. (2018). "Changes in the genetic requirements for microbial interactions with increasing community complexity". eLife. 7. doi:10.7554/eLife.37072. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 6175579. PMID 30211673.
  12. "Competition and Cooperation of Cheese Rind Microbes Exposed". The Scientist Magazine®. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  13. Bonham, Kevin S.; Wolfe, Benjamin E.; Dutton, Rachel J. (2017). "Extensive horizontal gene transfer in cheese-associated bacteria". eLife. 6. doi:10.7554/eLife.22144. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 5526665. PMID 28644126.
  14. Cooked, retrieved 2019-03-10
  15. "Cooked (2015) s01e04 Episode Script | SS". Springfield! Springfield!. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  16. "Rachel Dutton". Science & Food. 2013-08-20. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  17. "Welcome to the Dutton Lab". The Dutton Lab @ UCSD. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  18. "A Wedge of Science: A Spotlight on Cheese". Science Friday. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  19. "The Cheese Microbiome with Rachel Dutton". ASM.org. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  20. Buschman, Heather; McDonald, Kim; Ph.D. ’08 (2016-11-01). "Say Cheese". Triton. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  21. "FAS Center: Rachel Dutton". archive.sysbio.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  22. "Dutton, Rachel". The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  23. "UC San Diego Biologists Named Pew Scholars". ucsdnews.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  24. "New Innovator Award Recipients". commonfund.nih.gov. 26 June 2013. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
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