Doug LaRowe Department of Earth Sciences - Geochemistry Faculty of Geosciences Utrecht University P.O. Box 80.021 3508 TA Utrecht The Netherlands e-mail: (this e-mail is still valid) Position: PostDoc

Starting in Fall 2008, I will be a research scientist at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology, but will retain a part-time appointment at the Department of Earth Sciences in Utrecht.

It is now becoming widely recognized that microbes have evolved over time to flourish in a wide variety of biogeochemical systems that vary substantially in composition, pH, temperature, and pressure. In the process they have adapted to metabolize a myriad of organic and inorganic aqueous, crystalline, liquid, and gas compounds. As a consequence, microorganisms interact substantially with the minerals and aqueous fluids that are in most near-surface geologic environments. Because subsurface microbial communities are thought to comprise up to half of the world's biomass, quantifying these interactions in the diverse range of settings in which microbes thrive is critical to understanding and characterizing global biogeochemical cycles. It is crucial in this regard to assess quantitatively the exchange of mass and energy in subsurface biogeochemical systems, many of which exist at temperatures, pressures, and compositions far different from typical surface conditions. The goal of my research is to quantify the mass and energy transfer in biogechemical systems throughout the range of chemical and thermal environments in which microbes, minerals and aqueous fluids interact. To accomplish this I use thermodynamics and equations of state to explore and quantify the complex and multidimensional life support systems that enable communities of microbes to thrive in extreme environments. In particular, I characterize the thermodynamics properties of the metabolic processes and biomolecules common to all organisms in an attempt to assess the biologically catalyzed conversion of environmentally available energy into that which is biochemically useful, taking explicit account of the wide variety of energy sources and metabolic reactions involved.

Ph.D., Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, 2005 (Advisor: Harold Helgeson)
B.A., Earth & Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, 1998

Franiatte, M., Richard, L., Elie, M., Nguyen-Trung, C., Perfetti, E. and LaRowe, D. E. (2007) Hydrothermal stability of adenine under controlled fugacities of N₂, CO₂ and H₂, Seventeenth Annual V. M. Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference, Cologne, Germany

Mogollón, J.M., Dale, A.W., Thullner, M., LaRowe, D.E. and Regnier, P. (2007) Microorganism response to changes in the Sulfate-Methane Transition Zone (SMTZ) due to gas and fluid advection. International Symposia on Environmental Biogechemistry (ISEB): “Biogeochemistry at the Extremes”, Taupo, New Zealand

Nielsen, S.G., Klemm, V., LaRowe, D.E., Halliday, A.N., and Hein, J.R. (2007) Systematic thallium isotope variation in Fe-Mn crusts: A proxy for changes in ocean chemistry? AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, USA

LaRowe, D.E. and Regnier, P. (2007) Thermodynamic potential for the abiotic synthesis of nucleobases, ribose, and deoxyribose under submarine hydrothermal conditions Seventeenth Annual V. M. Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference, Cologne, Germany

LaRowe, D.E., Dale, A.W. and Regnier, P. (2007) Maximum ATP production potential during the anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM): Influence of alternative microbial metabolic pathways Workshop on Microbial Life Under Extreme Energy Limitation, Aarhus, Denmark

LaRowe, D. E., Dale, A.W. and Regnier, P. (2008) A comparative study of the bioenergetic potential of intermediate compounds associated with the anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) , Geobiology, (accepted).

LaRowe, D. E. and Regnier, P. (2008) Thermodynamic potential for the abiotic synthesis of adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, uracil, ribose, and deoxyribose in hydrothermal systems, Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, (in press).

Franiatte, M., Richard, L., Elie, M., Nguyen-Trung, C., Perfetti, E. and LaRowe, D. E. (2008) Hydrothermal stability of adenine under controlled fugacities of N₂, CO₂ and H₂, Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 38, 139-148.

LaRowe, D. E. and Helgeson, H. C. (2007) Thermodynamic analysis of microbial metabolism in hydrothermal systems: Quantifying ATP synthesis in terms of electron flow and pH at elevated temperatures and pressures. Geobiology, 5, 153-168 .

LaRowe, D.E. and Helgeson, H.C. (2006) Biomolecules in Hydrothermal Systems: Calculation of the standard molal thermodynamic properties of nucleic-acid bases, nucleosides, and nucleotides at elevated temperatures and pressures, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 70, 4680-4724.

LaRowe, D. E. and Helgeson, H. C. (2006) Energetics of metabolism in hydrothermal systems: Calculation of the standard molal thermodynamic properties of magnesium-complexed adenosine nucleotides and NAD and NADP at elevated temperatures and pressures, Thermochim. Acta, 448, 82-106 .

Dick, J.M., LaRowe, D.E., and Helgeson, H.C. (2006) Temperature, pressure, and electrochemical constraints on protein speciation: Group additivity calculation of the standard molal thermodynamic properties of ionized unfolded proteins. Biogeosciences, 3, 311-336.