Joint Appointee
Joint Appointee

Biography

Dr. Rene Boiteau is an assistant professor at Oregon State University, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, and holds a joint appointment with PNNL’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Division. There is a need to understand the sources, transformations, and biological influences on metals and nutrients in the environment to develop accurate climate models, assess the fate and effect of harmful contaminants, and design sustainable food and biofuel crop production practices. However, in most cases, the metabolic pathways, organisms, and genes involved in these global processes are still unknown. The cornerstone of his research is the development of state-of-the-art analytical approaches (especially mass spectrometry) that provide new windows into how elemental cycles are structured at the molecular level. Leveraging these and other omics tools, his goal is to develop predictive knowledge of how metals and organic nutrients support or hurt food webs, evolutionary adaptations, and environmental and human health. 

Much of his current research focuses on understanding how microbes and plants influence metals’ mobility and bioavailability in the environment. This work relies on developing analytical approaches to characterize biologically produced organic metal species and determine their kinetic properties using chromatography coupled with multimodal mass spectrometry. 

 

Research Interest

  • Environmental organic chemistry 

  • Bioinorganic chemistry 

  • Mass spectrometry 

  • Trace metal cycling 

Education

  • Linus Pauling Postdoctoral Fellow, PNNL (2016 – 2018) 

  • PhD in Graduate Research Fellow, Chemical Oceanography, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (2010 – 2016) 

  • MPhil in Earth Sciences, Cambridge University, Churchill Scholar (2009 – 2010) 

  • BA in Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Northwestern University, Goldwater Scholar (2005 – 2009) 

Awards and Recognitions

  • Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship, PNNL (2016) 

  • Graduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation (2009) 

  • Winston Churchill Scholarship (2009) 

  • Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (2008) 

  • Hollings Scholarship, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2007) 

Publications

2020 

Boiteau, R. M., R. Kukkadapu, J. B. Cliff, C. R. Smallwood, L. Kovarik, M. G. Wirth, M. H. Engelhard, T. Varga, A. Dohnalkova, D. E. Perea, T. Wietsma, J. J. Moran, and K. S. Hofmockel. 2020. “Calcareous Organic Matter Coatings Sequester Siderophores in Alkaline Soils.” Science of the Total Environment 724. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138250. 

2019 

Boiteau, R. M., S. J. Fansler, Y. Farris, J. B. Shaw, D. W. Koppenaal, L. Pasa-Tolic, and J. K. Jansson. 2019. “Siderophore Profiling of Co-Habitating Soil Bacteria by Ultra-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry.” Metallomics 11 (1): 166-175. https://doi.org/10.1039/c8mt00252e. 

Boiteau, R. M., C. P. Till, T. H. Coale, J. N. Fitzsimmons, K. W. Bruland, and D. J. Repeta. 2019. “Patterns of Iron and Siderophore Distributions across the California Current System.” Limnology and Oceanography 64 (1): 376-389. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11046. 

Shen, Y., R. Zhao, N. Tolić, M. M. Tfaily, E. W. Robinson, R. Boiteau, L. Paša-Tolić, and N. J. Hess. 2019. “Online Supercritical Fluid Extraction Mass Spectrometry (SFE-LC-FTMS) for Sensitive Characterization of Soil Organic Matter.” Faraday Discussions 218: 157-171. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9fd00011a. 

2018 

Boiteau, R. M., D. W. Hoyt, C. D. Nicora, H. A. Kinmonth-Schultz, J. K. Ward, and K. Bingol. 2018. “Structure Elucidation of Unknown Metabolites in Metabolomics by Combined NMR and MS/MS Prediction.” Metabolites 8 (1). https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo8010008. 

Boiteau, R. M., J. B. Shaw, L. Pasa-Tolic, D. W. Koppenaal, and J. K. Jansson. 2018. “Micronutrient Metal Speciation Is Controlled by Competitive Organic Chelation in Grassland Soils.” Soil Biology and Biochemistry 120: 283-291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2018.02.018. 

Bundy, R. M., R. M. Boiteau, C. McLean, K. A. Turk-Kubo, M. R. McIlvin, M. A. Saito, B. A. S. Van Mooy, and D. J. Repeta. 2018. “Distinct Siderophores Contribute to Iron Cycling in the Mesopelagic at Station ALOHA.” Frontiers in Marine Science 5 (61). https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00061. 

Munson, K. M., C. H. Lamborg, R. M. Boiteau, and M. A. Saito. 2018. “Dynamic Mercury Methylation and Demethylation in Oligotrophic Marine Water.” Biogeosciences 15 (21): 6451-6460. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018. 

2017 

Fassbender, A. J., H. I. Palevsky, T. R. Martz, A. E. Ingalls, M. Gledhill, S. E. Fawcett, J. A. Brandes, L. I. Aluwihare, L. Aluwihare, R. Anderson, S. Bender, E. Boyle, J. Brandes, D. Bronk, K. Buesseler, D. Burdige, K. Casciotti, H. Close, M. Conte, G. Cutter, M. Estapa, A. Fassbender, K. Fennel, S. Ferron, B. Glazer, M. Goni, M. Grand, C. Guay, M. Hatta, C. Hayes, T. Horner, E. Ingall, A. Ingalls, K. Johnson, L. Juranek, A. N. Knapp, P. Lam, G. Luther, P. Matrai, C. Measures, D. Nicholson, A. Paytan, R. Pellenbarg, K. Popendorf, C. Reddy, K. Ruttenberg, C. Sabine, F. Sansone, N. Shaltout, E. Sikes, E. Sundquist, D. Valentine, Z. A. Wang, S. Wilson, P. Barrett, M. Behrens, A. Belcher, L. Biermann, R. Boiteau, J. Clarke, J. Collins, A. Coppola, A. Ebling, F. Garcia-Tigreros, J. Goldman, E. F. Guallart, W. Haskell, S. Hurley, D. Janssen, W. Johnson, S. Lennartz, S. Liu, H. Palevsky, S. Rahman, D. Ray, A. Sarkar, Z. Steiner, B. Widner, B. Yang, DISCO XXV, and the participants of COME ABOARD. 2017. “Perspectives on Chemical Oceanography in the 21st Century: Participants of the COME ABOARD Meeting Examine Aspects of the Field in the Context of 40 Years of DISCO.” Marine Chemistry 196: 181-190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marchem.2017.09.002. 

Repeta, D., and R. Boiteau. 2017. “Organic Nutrient Chemistry and the Marine Microbiome.” In The Chemistry of Microbiomes: Proceedings of a Seminar Series. Washington DC: National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24751. 

2016 

Boiteau, R. M., D. R. Mende, N. J. Hawco, M. R. McIlvin, J. N. Fitzsimmons, M. A. Saito, P. N. Sedwick, E. F. Delong, and D. J. Repeta. 2016. “Siderophore-Based Microbial Adaptations to Iron Scarcity across the Eastern Pacific Ocean.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113 (50): 14237-14242. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1608594113. 

Boiteau, R. M., C. P. Till, A. Ruacho, R. M. Bundy, N. J. Hawco, A. M. McKenna, K. A. Barbeau, K. W. Bruland, M. A. Saito, and D. J. Repeta. 2016. “Structural Characterization of Natural Nickel and Copper Binding Ligands Along the US GEOTRACES Eastern Pacific Zonal Transect.” Frontiers in Marine Science 3 (NOV). https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00243. 

2015 

Boiteau, R. M., and D. J. Repeta. 2015. “An Extended Siderophore Suite from Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 Revealed by LC-ICPMS-ESIMS.” Metallomics 7 (5): 877-884. https://doi.org/10.1039/c5mt00005j. 

2014 

Böttjer, D., S. P. Jungbluth, R. Boiteau, B. Burkhardt, F. De Leo, and B. C. Bruno. 2014. “Career Choices in Marine and Environmental Sciences: Navigating a Sea of Options.” Oceanography 27 (2): 201-207. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2014.35. 

2013 

Boiteau, R. M., J. N. Fitzsimmons, D. J. Repeta, and E. A. Boyle. 2013. “Detection of Iron Ligands in Seawater and Marine Cyanobacteria Cultures by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry.” Analytical Chemistry 85 (9): 4357-4362. https://doi.org/10.1021/ac3034568. 

2012 

Boiteau, R., M. Greaves, and H. Elderfield. 2012. “Authigenic Uranium in Foraminiferal Coatings: A Proxy for Ocean Redox Chemistry.” Paleoceanography 27 (3). https://doi.org/10.1029/2012PA002335. 

2010 

Sinigalliano, C. D., J. M. Fleisher, M. L. Gidley, H. M. Solo-Gabriele, T. Shibata, L. R. W. Plano, S. M. Elmir, D. Wanless, J. Bartkowiak, R. Boiteau, K. Withum, A. M. Abdelzaher, G. He, C. Ortega, X. Zhu, M. E. Wright, J. Kish, J. Hollenbeck, T. Scott, L. C. Backer, and L. E. Fleming. 2010. “Traditional and Molecular Analyses for Fecal Indicator Bacteria in Non-Point Source Subtropical Recreational Marine Waters.” Water Research 44 (13): 3763-3772. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2010.04.026.