Rebecca Vega Thurber and her lab investigate the role and dynamics of bacteria and viruses in threatened hosts and habitats in order to better understand and mitigate or prevent the proximate causes of disease, habitat degradation, and ecosystem alteration. She is currently a Senior Editor of the flagship journal The International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal (ISMEJ) and the Editor and Chief of the new fully free journal Open Advances in Marine Biology, PeerJ.