Faculty Directory
Ludmilla Aristilde

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering, and (by courtesy), Earth and Planetary Sciences

Contact

2145 Sheridan Road
Tech A316
Evanston, IL 60208-3109

847-491-2999Email Ludmilla Aristilde

Website

Aristilde Research Group

Departments

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Chemical and Biological Engineering

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Education

NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University

Ph.D., Molecular Toxicology, University of California-Berkeley

M.S., Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California-Berkeley

B.S., Science of Earth Systems, Cornell University

B.F.A., Fine Arts, Cornell University


Research Interests

Dr Aristilde’s areas of expertise are in the combined application of experimental and computational tools in chemistry and biochemistry to gain novel molecular insights underlying the dynamics of organics in environmental processes. The goal of the Aristilde Group is to obtain a fundamental understanding of the “why” and “how” of the environmental behavior of organics, with implications for nutrient cycling, ecosystem health, agricultural productivity, and environmental biotechnology. Her group seeks to figure out the mechanisms responsible for the physical and biological fates. The current research activities of her group are focused on (i) cellular carbon metabolism of organic substrates in environmental bacteria, (ii) catalytic dynamics of nutrient-cycling extracellular enzymes, (iii) the physical chemistry of biomolecules and organic contaminants in environmental matrices, (iv) molecular ecotoxicological targets of organic contaminants.


Selected Publications

  1. Wilkes R.A., Zhou N., Carroll A.L., Aryal O., Teitel K.P., Wilson R.S., Kapoor A., Zhang L., Castaneda E., Guss A.M., Waldbauer J.R., Aristilde L. (2024) Mechanisms of polyethylene terephthalate pellet fragmentation into nanoplastics and assimilable carbons by wastewater Comamonas. Environmental Science and Technology, 58 (43), 19338–19352.
  2. Basinski J., Bone S., Klein A.R., Thongsomboon W., Mitchell V., Shukle J., Druschel G.K., Thompson A., Aristilde L. (2024) Unraveling iron oxides as abiotic catalysts of organic phosphorus recycling in soil and sediment matrices. Nature Communications, 15, 5930.
  3. Mendonca C.M., Zhang L., Waldbauer J., Aristilde L. (2024) Disproportionate carbon dioxide efflux in bacterial metabolic pathways for different organic substrates leads to variable contribution to carbon-use efficiency, Environmental Science and Technology, 58 (25), 11041-11052.
  4. Wang J., Wilson R.S., Aristilde L. (2024) Electrostatic coupling and water bridging in hierarchy of biomolecule adsorption at water-clay interfaces. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121 (7), e231656912. 
  5. Wilkes, R.A.., Waldbauer J., Parker D.J., Zhang L., Guss A.M., Aristilde L. (2023) Complex regulation in a Comamonas platform for diverse aromatic carbon metabolism, Nature Chemical Biology, 19, 651-662.
  6. Solhtalab M., Moller S.R., Gu A.Z., Jaisi L, Aristilde L. (2022). Selectivity in enzymatic phosphorus recycling from biopolymers: Isotope effect, reactivity kinetics, and molecular docking with plant and fungal phosphatases. Environmental Science and Technology, 56, 16441–16452.
  7. Hassanpour B., Blair N., Aristilde L. (2022) Metabolomics of unresolved molecular variability in stream dissolved organic carbon, Water Research, 223, 118923.
  8. Park Y., Thongsonboom W., Solhtalab M., Aristilde L. (2022) Strategies of organic phosphorus recycling by soil bacteria: acquisition, metabolism, and regulation, Environmental Microbiology Reports, 14, 3-24.
  9. Li W., Wilkes R.A., Aristilde L. (2022) Effects of phosphonate herbicides on the secretions of plant-beneficial compounds by two plant growth-promoting bacteria: A metabolomics investigation, ACS Environmental Au, 2, 136-149.
  10. Wilkes R.A., Waldbauer J., Aristilde L. (2021) Analogous metabolic decoupling in Pseudomonas putida and Comamonas testosteroni implies energetic bypass to facilitate gluconeogeonic growth, mBio, 12, e03259-21.