Melanie Podbielski

I am a PhD student in Louise Horfall's lab studying biology-based metal recycling techniques using the filamentous fungi Aspergillus niger. I completed my MScR at the University of Edinburgh in palaeontology & geobiology studying biomineralizing iron bacteria and the processes involved in microbe fossilisation. This work through the UK Centre for Astrobiology helps us understand diagnostic features useful for identifying biosignatures on the early earth and around the solar system. After my master’s I worked on a NASA project through the University of Florida studying the effects of microgravity on plant immune responses to fungal pathogens. As an undergraduate at Appalachian State University I researched microalgae cultivation for wastewater treatment. My work is motivated by a passion for space and planetary science paired with a desire to care for and protect our amazing planet earth.

Melanie
Research Abstract
Metal recycling of electronics waste materials is of growing importance in the quest to build a more sustainable economy. Recycling the critical metals found in lithium-ion batteries is especially vital as these devices are key to the move away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy sources. While current methods for industrial scale metal recycling can be energy intensive and highly toxic, biological systems can carry out metal leaching and capture using highly efficient biological processes.
 
My work focuses on the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger. This species has the impressive ability to both leach and capture a variety of useful and critical metals from electronic waste. A. niger can also be grown in media made from waste agricultural materials or food waste. In my work I use inductively coupled plasma spectrometry, high-performance liquid chromatography, powder X-ray diffraction, and electron microscopy to probe the mechanisms of metal leaching and metal capture by these versatile organisms. I am particularly interested in the selective leaching and precipitation of specific metals from mixed metal waste, and how the unique combinations of organic acids produced by A. niger can be used to separate and sequester useful metals at low temperatures and without the addition of toxic reagents.

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