"I strive to provide my students with experiences in the classroom and lab to prepare them to be conscientious scientists and global citizens. My favorite part of providing research experience to students is that ‘ah ha’ moment when classroom concepts and hands-on lab work click."
Nikolas Stasulli
Associate ProfessorBiological Sciences
Nikolas Stasulli is an associate professor of biological sciences at Goucher College in Baltimore, MD. He completed his doctorate in microbiology & immunology at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he studied the effects of the bacteria that causes pneumonic plague, Yersinia pestis, on lung-infiltrating neutrophils. Prior to joining Goucher in 2025 he was an associate professor at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. At Goucher, Dr. Stasulli’s research focuses on studying microbial communities and interactions by 1) utilizing nanopore sequencing to profile environmental bacteria, and 2) examining how interactions between distinct community members elicit the production of unique colony phenotypes (sporulation, motility) or small molecules (antibiotics or anti-biofilm agents). Dr. Stasulli teaches on a variety of topics including general biology, microbiology (environmental and pathogenic), immunology, and molecular biology.
Research, Scholarship, Creative Work in Progress
My research interests involve two project arms, linked through studying naturally developing microbial communities and attempting to dissect bacterial communities to study the ways in which bacterial community members communicate and interact with each other. Bacteria can influence, amongst other things, the physiology, growth, and metabolism of their neighbors through the secretion of small chemical compounds termed specialized (secondary) metabolites. While some of these metabolites have been identified and utilized by humans (i.e. antibiotics), there are still many uncharacterized biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) in bacteria that are predicted to code for proteins that assemble specialized metabolites. Previous research, by myself and others, has found that some of these cryptic specialized metabolites are only produced in response to signals from other bacteria. Identification of new metabolites from these polymicrobial interactions could lead to the discovery of useful and marketable compounds such as new antibiotics to help combat the increase in antibiotic-resistant diseases, or anti-biofilm chemicals that could, for example, help reduce hospital catheter-acquired infections.
In partnership with marine biologists and ecologists I have also employed nanopore sequencing technology to sequence and analyze bacterial community composition and succession. I have collaborated on microbiome projects involving the ingestion of microplastics by Fundulus heteroclitus, the establishment of microbial biofilms on microplastics in a riverine system, the monitoring of local waterways for toxic algal species, and effects of grazing and invasive species on soil microbiomes.
Publications
Gilewski, A. L., Shrestha, S., Kahara, S. N., & Stasulli, N. M. (2025). Microbial composition on microplastics mediated by stream impairment. Environmental microbiome, 20(1), 32.
Carr, S. A., Mathews, S. L., Pruneski, J. A., & Stasulli, N. M. (2024). A case study to engage students in evolutionary thinking around antibiotic resistance using the MEGA-plate experiment. Journal of microbiology & biology education, 25(3), e0003924.
Cook, G. D., & Stasulli, N. M. (2024). Employing synthetic biology to expand antibiotic discovery. SLAS technology, 29(2), 100120.
Yaroshuk, T., & Stasulli, N. M. (2022). Complete Genome Sequence of a Luteibacter Strain Isolated from a Carnivorous Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia minor). Microbiology resource announcements, 11(12), e0069722.
Yourstone, S. M., Weinstein, I., Ademski, E., Shank, E. A., & Stasulli, N. M. (2021). Selective Bacterial Community Enrichment between the Pitcher Plants Sarracenia minor and Sarracenia flava. Microbiology spectrum, 9(3), e0069621.
Stasulli, N. M., & Shank, E. A. (2016). Profiling the metabolic signals involved in chemical communication between microbes using imaging mass spectrometry. FEMS microbiology reviews, 40(6), 807–813.
Academic or Professional Associations
American Society for Microbiology
American Academy for the Advancement of Science
American Academy for the Advancement of Science