Roberta Hansman received a four-year Else Richter grant from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) to analyze dissolved proteins found in seawater. Proteins comprise about 50% of all living organisms, including the millions of microbes present in every liter of seawater, and thus become a major component of the dissolved organic material found in the ocean. This work will identify and quantify proteins dissolved in seawater in combination with analysis of the exo-metabolome in order to gain insight into what organic material in the ocean is composed of and what role microorganisms play in structuring dissolved organic matter composition. The project will be conducted within the Vienna Metabolomics Center. Roberta Hansman is member of the Microbial Oceanography lab headed by Gerhard Herndl.