# Colleen Cavanaugh > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Colleen_Cavanaugh > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Colleen_Cavanaugh.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleen_Cavanaugh > Source revision: 1341432251 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American microbiologist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Colleen Cavanaugh | image = Colleen Cavanaugh dissecting clams from the deep sea (cropped).jpg | image_size = | caption = Colleen Cavanaugh in 1992 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1953}} | birth_place = [Detroit](/source/Detroit) | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | workplaces = | alma_mater = Harvard University | thesis_title = Symbiosis of chemoautotrophic bacteria and marine invertebrates | thesis_url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/16170833 | thesis_year = 1985 | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | known_for = studies of [hydrothermal vent](/source/hydrothermal_vent) [ecosystem](/source/ecosystem)s | education = | employer = | occupation = microbiologist | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Colleen Marie Cavanaugh''' is an American academic [microbiologist](/source/microbiologist) best known for her studies of [hydrothermal vent](/source/hydrothermal_vent) [ecosystem](/source/ecosystem)s.{{cite book|last1=Gaines|first1=Susan|last2=Eglington|first2=Jeffrey|last3=Rullkotter|first3=Jurgen|title=Echoes of Life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History|date=2009|publisher=[Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press)|isbn=9780195176193|page=177}} As of 2002, she is the Edward C. Jeffrey Professor of [Biology](/source/Biology) in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University) and is affiliated with the [Marine Biological Laboratory](/source/Marine_Biological_Laboratory) and the [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution](/source/Woods_Hole_Oceanographic_Institution).{{cite web|title=Colleen Cavanaugh|url=http://cavanaughlab.oeb.harvard.edu/people/colleen-cavanaugh|website=Cavanaugh Lab|publisher=[Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University)|accessdate=15 September 2016}} Cavanaugh was the first to propose that the deep-sea [giant tube worm](/source/giant_tube_worm), ''[Riftia pachyptila](/source/Riftia_pachyptila)'', obtains its food from [bacteria](/source/bacteria) living within its [cells](/source/Cell_(biology)), an insight which she had as a [graduate student](/source/graduate_student) at Harvard.{{cite web|last1=Cromie |first1=William |title=Microbiologist-Aquanaut Colleen Cavanaugh Receives Tenure |url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/11.14/Microbiologist-.html |accessdate=15 September 2016 |website=The Harvard University Gazette |date=November 14, 1996 |url-status=deviated |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234707/http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/11.14/Microbiologist-.html |archivedate=3 March 2016 }} Significantly, she made the connection that these [chemoautotroph](/source/chemoautotroph)ic bacteria were able to play this role through their use of [chemosynthesis](/source/chemosynthesis), the biological oxidation of inorganic compounds (e.g., [hydrogen sulfide](/source/hydrogen_sulfide)) to synthesize organic matter from very simple carbon-containing molecules, thus allowing [organism](/source/organism)s such as the bacteria (and dependent organisms such as tube worms) to exist in [deep ocean](/source/ocean_floor) without [sunlight](/source/sunlight).{{cite book|last1=Kirchman|first1=David|title=Processes in Microbial Ecology|date=2012|publisher=[Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press)|isbn=9780199586936|page=268}} ==Early life and education== Cavanaugh was born in [Detroit](/source/Detroit), [Michigan](/source/Michigan), in 1953.{{cite journal |last1=Gray |first1=J. |title=Colleen Cavanaugh: Winner of the Ecology Institute's IRPE PRIZE 1986 in marine ecology |journal=[Marine Ecology Progress Series](/source/Marine_Ecology_Progress_Series) |date=November 27, 1986 |volume=34 |issue=9–10 |pages=9–10 |doi=10.3354/meps034009 |bibcode=1986MEPS...34....9G |doi-access=free }} Cavanaugh received her undergraduate degree from the [University of Michigan](/source/University_of_Michigan) in 1977, where she initially studied music but ultimately majored in ecology.{{cite book |last1=Kunzig |first1=R. |title=Mapping the Deep: The Extraordinary Story of Ocean Science |date=2000 |publisher=[W. W. Norton & Company](/source/W._W._Norton_%26_Company) |isbn=9780393320633 |page=[https://archive.org/details/mappingdeepextra0000kunz/page/141 141] |url=https://archive.org/details/mappingdeepextra0000kunz/page/141 }} She says her life changed direction in her sophomore year when she heard about a course in [marine ecology](/source/marine_ecology) at the [oceanographic](/source/oceanography) center in [Woods Hole, Massachusetts](/source/Woods_Hole%2C_Massachusetts). There, her work involved wading out into chilly waters to study the [mating habit](/source/sexual_reproduction)s of [horseshoe crab](/source/horseshoe_crab)s, and she described herself as "[falling] in love" with the relaxed camaraderie and exchange of ideas between biologists, [geologist](/source/geologist)s, and scientists from other disciplines. Cavanaugh took a Marine Ecology course as an undergraduate offered by the University of Michigan, stayed in Woods Hole afterwards (as her car needed repair) looking for a job, and ultimately replaced a "no show" in a Boston University undergraduate research program, which returned her to work with local horseshoe crabs. Cavanaugh then moved to [Cape Cod](/source/Cape_Cod) to work at the [Marine Biological Laboratory](/source/Marine_Biological_Laboratory) at Woods Hole. During the next two years the focus of her attention shifted from [Crustacea](/source/Crustacea) to [bacteria](/source/bacteria), "creatures that impressed her for their ability to live anywhere." ==Graduate training== [[File:Nur04505.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Cavanaugh's analyses of bacterial symbioses involving [giant tube worms](/source/giant_tube_worms) and other [deep sea](/source/deep_sea) [invertebrate](/source/invertebrate)shas led to her being described as a "scientific [Captain Nemo](/source/Captain_Nemo)."{{third-party inline|date=September 2016}}]] Cavanaugh pursued her graduate training in biology at Harvard University, in association with the [Museum of Comparative Zoology](/source/Museum_of_Comparative_Zoology). She entered Harvard in the fall of 1979, earning an M.A. in 1981 and graduating with her PhD in biology in 1985.{{cite magazine|last1=Shea|first1=Neil|title=At Large on the Blue Frontier|url=http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/07/at-large-on-the-blue-fro.html|accessdate=15 September 2016|magazine=Harvard Magazine|date=August 2003}} Her [Ph.D.](/source/Ph.D.) dissertation, entitled ''Symbiosis of chemoautotrophic bacteria and marine invertebrates'', was accepted in 1985.{{cite web|last1=Cavanaugh|first1=Colleen|title=Symbiosis of chemoautotrophic bacteria and marine invertebrates|date=1985|website=[HOLLIS Catalog - Harvard University](/source/Harvard_Library)|url=http://hollis.harvard.edu/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=HVD&search_scope=default_scope&docId=HVD_ALEPH001337169&fn=permalink|accessdate=15 September 2016}} ===Discovery of chemosynthesis in tube worms=== By one account, Cavanaugh was attending a lecture by [Meredith L. Jones](/source/Meredith_Leam_Jones), curator of worms at the [Smithsonian Institution](/source/Smithsonian_Institution), shortly after she began her [graduate studies](/source/graduate_school). Jones was discussing the giant tube worm, a creature lacking both [mouth](/source/mouth) and [gut](/source/Gut_(zoology)), where the challenge was to understand how it survived. Jones mentioned elemental [sulfur](/source/sulfur) crystals within the worms gut; Cavanaugh states that "It was at that point that I jumped up and said, 'Well, it's perfectly clear! They must have sulphur-oxidising bacteria inside their bodies'". Jones apparently told her to sit down, but provided Cavanaugh with a specimen captured by a research [submarine](/source/submarine) working on the bottom of the [Pacific Ocean](/source/Pacific_Ocean). Cavanaugh eventually substantiated her case. The ''Harvard Gazette'' describes Cavanaugh's pioneering study of these unique creatures:
As a first-year graduate student, she discovered what makes life possible... where the sun never shines, [where] temperatures can exceed 250 degrees F, and [where] the ocean exerts pressures of thousands of pounds on every square inch of an animal's body. Giant worms, huge [clam](/source/clam)s and [mussel](/source/mussel)s, and strange [shrimp](/source/shrimp) thrive in such conditions because of one-celled [bacteria](/source/bacteria) who live on and inside them. The bacteria turn sulfur, [methane](/source/methane), and other inedibles into [organic molecule](/source/organic_molecule)s that their hosts feed on.
Cavanaugh went on to publish the results of the further work that began to substantiate the discovery, writing from the [Museum of Comparative Zoology](/source/Museum_of_Comparative_Zoology) at Harvard, as first of a five author paper, a short 1981 ''Science'' report with [Stephen L. Gardiner](/source/Stephen_L._Gardiner) and [Meredith L. Jones](/source/Meredith_Leam_Jones) of the Smithsonian Institution, and [Holgar W. Jannasch](/source/Holgar_W._Jannasch) and [John B. Waterbury](/source/John_B._Waterbury) at [Woods Hole](/source/Woods_Hole_Oceanographic_Institution) (see Significant publications). ==Career== Cavanaugh's first appointment was as a Junior Fellowship in the Society of Fellows at [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University), in 1986–1989.{{Cite web|url=https://socfell.fas.harvard.edu/listed-field-0|title=Listed by Field|website=socfell.fas.harvard.edu|language=en|access-date=2020-01-24}} This was followed by elevation to assistant professorship in 1989, and associate professor in 1993. In 1995, she was granted tenure as a full professor "for [her] discoveries and her reputation as a teacher and mentor." Cavanaugh was the Co-director of the Harvard Microbial Sciences Initiative {{Cite web|title=Microbial Sciences Initiative (MSI)|url=https://msi.harvard.edu/home|access-date=2021-07-19|website=msi.harvard.edu|language=en}} for 17 years.{{Cite news|last=Atiya|first=Alexandra|date=April 16, 2004|title=Microbial Science Initiative To Launch in Weekend Symposium|work=The Harvard Crimson|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/4/16/microbial-science-initiative-to-launch-in/|access-date=July 19, 2021}}{{Cite web|title=Directors Emeritus {{!}} Microbial Sciences Initiative|url=https://hwpi.harvard.edu/msi/people/people/directors-emeritus|access-date=2021-07-19|website=hwpi.harvard.edu}} ==Research and outreach highlights== Cavanaugh has continued to build her career on the study of hydrothermal vent ecology. Cavanaugh went on to discover similar symbiotic partnerships among [Solemyidae](/source/Solemyidae) clams living in shallow [eelgrass](/source/Zostera) beds and [mudflat](/source/mudflat)s along the [New England](/source/New_England) coast, and in shrimp near sub-sea springs in the middle of the [Atlantic](/source/Atlantic_Ocean). Cavanaugh believes that [life on Earth](/source/life) may have started under similar conditions and says "the idea makes sense because some of the oldest forms of free-living [bacteria](/source/bacteria) show signs of being heat-loving organisms." Cavanaugh's work has made the scientific community rethink the "warm [chicken soup](/source/chicken_soup)" [theory](/source/theory) of life's origins in which the accumulation of organic molecules in [shallow waters](/source/coast) was a result of [lightning](/source/lightning) [electricity](/source/electricity). [[File:Photo of Ruth Turner and Colleen Cavanaugh dissecting clams from the deep sea.jpg|thumb|left|[Ruth Turner](/source/Ruth_Turner) and Cavanaugh dissecting [Alvin](/source/DSV_Alvin)-retrieved clams from the deep sea in 1992]] Cavanaugh's discoveries of the biology of the deep [Pacific Ocean](/source/Pacific_Ocean) were made in a [Cambridge, Massachusetts](/source/Cambridge%2C_Massachusetts) (Harvard) [laboratory](/source/laboratory), and she worked on marine life in the laboratory and on board [ship](/source/ship)s for twelve years before securing a place on the deep-diving submarine ''[Alvin](/source/DSV_Alvin)''; she went to the bottom of the [Gulf of Mexico](/source/Gulf_of_Mexico), off the [Florida](/source/Florida) coast, for the first time in 1992. According to the ''Harvard Gazette'' article:
Not many people have visited with 6-foot-long, bright red worms on the boiling bottom of the ocean. It sounds like a [Jules Verne](/source/Jules_Verne) fantasy, but newly tenured Professor of Biology Colleen Cavanaugh has seen these and other strange creatures on voyages to the bottom of the deep sea.
She later participated in more "Extreme Expeditions"—such as a dive to a depth of 8,200 feet off the west coast of [Mexico](/source/Mexico) to collect tube worms and their bacteria, the chemically-rich fluids that flow out of the vents, and mineral samples from the [deep sea](/source/deep_sea) ocean floor.{{cite web|last=Cavanaugh|first=Colleen |date=2003 |title=Extreme 2003: Exploring the Deep Frontier, 'Tubeworms: The "Rose Garden" on the Sea Floor,' and 'Mystery of the "Gutless Wonder"' |website=Ocean.UDel.edu/Extreme2003 |location=Newark, DE |publisher=University of Delaware, Department of Earth, Ocean, and Environment |url=http://www.ocean.udel.edu/extreme2003/creatures/tubeworms/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530081121/http://www.ocean.udel.edu/extreme2003/creatures/tubeworms/index.html |archive-date=2009-05-30 |access-date=12 September 2016 |url-status=dead }} Cavanaugh, who has been called "a scientific [Captain Nemo](/source/Captain_Nemo)." is prominent in her field of biology. Robert Kunzig, in describing her work for a 2001 ''[Discover](/source/Discover_(magazine))'' magazine article, writes of her visit to "a hot crack in the Earth under the [Indian Ocean](/source/Indian_Ocean)":
Biologists who study the [physiology](/source/physiology) of organisms are under time pressure: They must dissect the organisms before they deteriorate. Colleen Cavanaugh, a microbiologist from Harvard, needs animals that are alive and not starved; once they've been away from their vent too long, even if they've been sitting in a box on the ocean floor, they start to digest the symbiotic bacteria in which she is interested.{{cite journal|author=Kunzig, Robert |year=2001 |title=Expedition to the Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea |journal=[Discover](/source/Discover_(magazine)) |issue=December 1 |url=http://discovermagazine.com/2001/dec/cover |access-date=12 September 2016 |url-status=deviated |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014115811/http://discovermagazine.com/2001/dec/cover |archivedate=14 October 2007 }}
As reported in February 2000, Cavanaugh is the discoverer of a new [species](/source/species) of deep-dwelling mussel in the [Gulf of Mexico](/source/Gulf_of_Mexico) that shares its body with symbiotic bacteria that feed on methane. She joined Craig Smith of the University of Hawaii and other colleagues in a ''[Nature](/source/Nature_(journal))'' report on a [NOAA](/source/National_Oceanic_and_Atmospheric_Administration) [National Undersea Research Program](/source/National_Undersea_Research_Program) study at its West Coast and Polar Regions Center (at the [University of Alaska, Fairbanks](/source/University_of_Alaska%2C_Fairbanks)), regarding how [whale](/source/whale) [corpse](/source/corpse)s that drop to the bottom of the ocean—and their [bone](/source/bone)s in particular—play an important role in [ocean floor](/source/ocean_floor) ecology.{{cite news|last1=Goldman|first1=Jana|title=Oceanographers Say Dead Whales Provide Deep-Seas Living Legacy|url=http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2000/feb00/noaa00r506.html|accessdate=15 September 2016|publisher=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|date=February 17, 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161211164857/http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2000/feb00/noaa00r506.html|archive-date=11 December 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=Oceanographers Say Dead Whales Provide Deep-Sea Living Legacy|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/02/000218055946.htm|accessdate=15 September 2016|website=Science Daily|date=February 21, 2000}}{{cite journal|last1=Distel|first1=Daniel|last2=Baco|first2=Amy|last3=Chuang|first3=Ellie|last4=Morrill|first4=Wendy|last5=Cavanaugh|first5=Colleen|last6=Smith|first6=Craig|title=Marine ecology: Do mussels take wooden steps to deep-sea vents?|journal=Nature|date=February 17, 2000|volume=403|issue=725–726|pages=725–726|doi=10.1038/35001667|pmid=10693793|bibcode=2000Natur.403..725D|s2cid=4425947}} ==Cavanaugh Laboratory== The Cavanaugh Laboratory at Harvard works on a number of projects related to bacterial [symbiosis](/source/symbiosis) in marine [invertebrates](/source/invertebrates) from [deep sea hydrothermal vent](/source/Black_smoker)s, [methane](/source/methane) seeps, and coastal reducing [sediment](/source/sediment)s. Researchers there have a special interest in characterizing the [metabolic](/source/metabolism) and [genetic](/source/genetics) capabilities of symbionts, their [evolution](/source/evolution)ary relationships with free-living bacteria, and the co-evolution of symbiont and host.{{cite web|title=Research|url=http://cavanaughlab.oeb.harvard.edu/research|website=Cavanaugh Lab|publisher=Harvard University|accessdate=15 September 2016}} == Awards == * Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1996){{Cite web|title=Historic Fellows {{!}} American Association for the Advancement of Science|url=https://www.aaas.org/fellows/historic|access-date=2021-05-07|website=www.aaas.org|language=en}} ==Significant publications== * {{cite journal |last1=Cavanaugh |first1=CM |last2=Abbott |first2=MS |last3=Veenhuis |first3=M |year=1988 |title=Immunochemical Localization of Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate Carboxylase in the Symbiont-Containing Gills of Solemya velum (Bivalvia: Mollusca) |journal=[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America](/source/Proceedings_of_the_National_Academy_of_Sciences_of_the_United_States_of_America) |volume=85 |issue=20 |pages=7786–7789 |jstor=33030|bibcode=1988PNAS...85.7786C |doi=10.1073/pnas.85.20.7786|pmid=16593987 |pmc=282278 |url=https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/14350500/pnas00299-0371.pdf?sequence=1 |doi-access=free }} * {{cite journal |last1=Cavanaugh |first1=CM |last2=Gardiner |first2=SL |last3=Jones|first3=ML |author-link3=Meredith Leam Jones|last4=Jannasch |first4=HW |last5=Waterbury |first5=JB |year=1981 |title=Prokaryotic Cells in the Hydrothermal Vent Tube Worm Riftia pachyptila Jones: Possible Chemoautotrophic Symbionts |journal=[Science](/source/Science_(journal)) |volume=213 |issue= 4505|pages=340–342|bibcode=1981Sci...213..340C |doi=10.1126/science.213.4505.340 |pmid=17819907}} ==References== {{reflist|30em}} ==External links== *{{Commonscatinline}} *[http://cavanaughlab.oeb.harvard.edu/ C.M. Cavanaugh faculty pages at Harvard Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.] {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Cavanaugh, Colleen}} Category:American microbiologists Category:American women microbiologists Category:Environmental microbiology Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:Boston University alumni Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:Scientists from Detroit Category:Living people Category:1953 births Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Colleen Cavanaugh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleen_Cavanaugh) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleen_Cavanaugh?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.