His work also utilizes synthetic biology to explore potential biological solutions to more general problems, such as how we can support human deep space exploration, particularly with regard to Mars and its perchlorates.

One approach he is exploring is the creation of synthetic extremophiles through functional metagenomics to at once take advantage of Earth’s tremendous genetic diversity while also sidestepping the limited selection pressures found on Earth.

Garrett is keenly interested in how the limited evolutionary pressures found on Earth shape the capabilities and limits of the only life we know, and how we can move beyond this limitation to better understand the potential for life in the solar system and beyond.

He is now working to apply similar techniques and ideas from evolutionary genetics to astrobiology, where questions of adapting to challenging environments abound.

Garrett completed his Ph.D. at Stanford using stickleback (a small fish) as a model system, exploring the genetic changes underlying their remarkable evolution both genome-wide and for a particular trait (armor spine length).