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Penny Amy
( University of Nevada, Las Vegas )
- Institution:University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- Departments: Microbiology
- Research Fields: Microbial Ecology, Environmental Microbiology
- Disciplines: Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Microbiology, General
- Location:Clark County
- Funding:EPSCoR - Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
Biography
Dr. Penny Amy’s research interests are in Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology. She is interested in microorganisms in their natural environments. In the past she has worked with organisms in freshwater, marine and deep subsurface environments. She currently works with bacteriophages of a bacterium, Paenibacillus larvae, which infects the larvae of honeybees. She also has a biotechnology project investigating the use of microbes in hydroponics.
Her research is currently concentrated on two areas of microbiology:
the treatment of Paenibacillus larvae, a honeybee pathogen, which causes American Foulbrood Disease, using bacteriophage;
basic microbial ecology of oil formation microorganisms and surfactants produced by them.