Freddy Bunbury

Research Scientist

University of Chicago

fbunbury@uchicago.edu

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Freddy Bunbury

I study how microbial traits and interactions determine ecological performance under environmental change. My work integrates two complementary axes:

I combine wet-lab microbiology with computational and modelling approaches, focusing on:

Current work supported by the University of Chicago, NSF, and the Allen Foundation.

Research

Vitamin B12 exchange traits

Interaction traits: vitamin B12 exchange

I quantify B12 synthesis, release, and uptake traits across bacterial isolates to understand how metabolites are shared and how this shapes community structure.

Thermal performance curves in cyanobacteria

Intrinsic traits: thermotolerance

I study how cyanobacteria adapt to high temperatures in hot springs, linking genomic features to growth and environmental distributions.

Selected publications

Bunbury F, Janas T, Ghosh S, Scorza K, Mullen P, Donnat C et al. Bacterial vitamin sharing emerges from a balance between release and uptake. In preparation.

Bunbury F, Rivas C, Calatrava V, Malkovskiy AV, Joubert L-M, Parvate AD, et al. Cyanobacteria and Chloroflexota cooperate to structure light-responsive biofilms. PNAS, 2025.

Sayer AP, Llavero-Pasquina M, Geisler K, Holzer A, Bunbury F, Mendoza-Ochoa GI, et al. Conserved cobalamin acquisition protein 1 is essential for vitamin B12 uptake in both Chlamydomonas and Phaeodactylum. Plant Physiology, 2024.

Bunbury F, Shelton AN, Bhaya D. Shedding light on spatial structure and dynamics in phototrophic biofilms. Current Opinion in Systems Biology, 2023.

Bunbury F, Deery E, Sayer AP, Bhardwaj V, Harrison EL, Warren MJ, et al. Exploring the onset of B12-based mutualisms. Environmental Microbiology, 2022.

Bunbury F, Helliwell KE, Mehrshahi P, Davey MP, Salmon DL, Holzer A, et al. Responses of a newly evolved auxotroph to B12 deprivation. Plant Physiology, 2020.

See full publication list in CV