Carly Muletz Wolz (Fed)

Carly R. Muletz Wolz is a microbiologist in the Complex Microbial Systems Group at NIST. Her research focuses on how to engineer microbiomes (i.e., use of microbial communities to serve a desired function). Great potential exists in engineering microbiomes to benefit our modern society, such as: improve crop yields, protect against pathogens, degrade plastic, etc.). To execute such bioengineering achievements, Muletz Wolz believes we must implement methods that can effectively focus our attention and design on the microbial taxa that will be useful. 

There are more microbial species than stars in the sky. The challenge is no small feat to compete with the numerical odds of identifying the best microorganisms to study for a specific task. Muletz Wolz's goal is to parallelize top-down and bottom-up engineering approaches using nature to inform design to more effectively engineer microbiomes.  Top-down approaches study the whole community in vivo and provide key insight into how these organisms interact and what may be stabilizing their structure (e.g. cross-feeding). Top-down approaches identify key players in microbial communities for which bottom-up approaches can validate and be used to engineer by building simple to complex communities in vitro. In her research, Muletz Wolz uses highly integrative approaches, incorporating field surveys and laboratory experiments alongside cutting-edge molecular methods (e.g., metabarcoding, transcriptomics, and metagenomics), analytical methods (e.g., machine learning, multivariate statistics, and network analysis) and traditional microbiology techniques (e.g., co-culture assays) to improve understanding of microbiome dynamics. 

Currently, her research at NIST is focused on (i) agricultural microbiomes, particularly soil microbiomes and pathogen resistance, and (ii) the role of antimicrobial peptides in structuring host microbiomes, and (iii) methods to improve microbial enumeration using fluorescence spectroscopy and DNA sequencing. 

Research opportunities:

NIST-NRC Postdoctoral Fellowships: 2-year fellowships at NIST, US citizens only, ~$82,000 salary plus benefits and relocation expenses. Application deadlines are Feb and Aug each year, requires 10-page research proposal. If you are interested in writing a proposal on a microbiome research project, we currently have opportunities posted for specific areas of focus. Reach out if interested.

Recent publications:

Madison JD, Osborne OG, Ellison A, Garvey Griffith CN, Gentry L, Gross H, Gratwicke B, Grayfer L, Muletz-Wolz CR. (2025). Probiotic colonization of Xenopus laevis skin causes short-term changes in skin microbiomes and gene expression. Infect Immun 93, e00569-24. https://doi.org/10.1128/iai.00569-24

Kutos, S, Bennett, R, Santos, D, Botero-Delgadillo, E, Muletz-Wolz, CR. (2025). Soil and cherry bacterial communities predict flavor on coffee farms. Sci Rep 15, 19387. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-03665-6

Bornbusch, SL, Power, ML, Schulkin, J, Drea, CM, Maslanka, MT and Muletz-Wolz, CR. (2024). Integrating microbiome science and evolutionary medicine into animal health and conservation. Biol Rev, 99, 458-477. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.13030