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Katherine Heal
Computational Scientist

Katherine Heal is a data professional and ocean scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) as well as a contributor to EMSL's CoreMS resource. She possesses over a decade of experience managing, processing, and analyzing complex environmental datasets, from mass-spectrometry-based metabolomics to acoustics, imagery, and contaminant chemistry. Her work bridges scientific computing and collaborative research, with a focus on making data more accessible, reusable, and impactful.

Katherine specializes in building and maintaining data workflows, metadata systems, and scalable, open-source tools that support scientific discovery. With a strong foundation in Python and R, she has led development of data pipelines, interactive applications, and analysis-ready products for cross-disciplinary teams in academic, private consulting, and national lab settings.

She is especially passionate about FAIR data practices and supporting scientists through intuitive tools and documentation. She thrives in environments where technical problem-solving meets mission-driven science and where inclusive, collaborative work leads to better outcomes for research and for the planet.

Research Interests

  • Metabolomics
  • Lipidomics
  • Mass spectrometry
  • Microbial ecology

Discipline and Skills

  • AI-Ready Data
  • Data Modeling
  • Lipidomics
  • Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS)
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Metabolomics
  • Metadata Management
  • Metadata Modeling
  • Python
  • R

Education

  • PhD in Chemical Oceanography, University of Washington, 2018
  • MS in Chemical Oceanography, University of Washington, 2014
  • BA in Environmental Chemistry, Colorado College, 2011

Awards and Recognition

  • Graduate Dean's Medalist Award, University of Washington College of the Environment, 2017

Publications

2026

  • Ferrer-González, F.X.*, Heal, K.R.*, Sacks, J.S, Romero-Maysonet Y., Finch, A.J., Carlson, L.T., Coe, L.S.Y., Bartolek, Z., Luthy, C.B., Gaffney, M.P., Angier S.K., Flynn S.E., Bachmann-Gomez C.I., Dunn J.M.L., Bay, K.J., Yamamota, L.A., Tien, M.Z., Armbrust, E.V., Durham, B.P., Sosa, O.A., Ingalls, A.E. Conserved pathway for homarine catabolism in environmental bacteria. Nature Microbiology 11, p. 1531–1546 (2026) . *equal contribution.
     
  • Sacks, J.S., L.T. Carlson, A.H. Finch, F.X. Ferrer-Gonzalez, A.K. Boysen, K.R. Heal , D. Karl, A.E. White, O.A. Sosa, A.E. Ingalls. The cycling of glycine betaine and homarine in marine microbial communities: Quantitative flux measurements and the role of competitive uptake inhibition. Limnology and Oceanography Letters. 11, 1.

2025

  • Durham, B.P., Johnson, W.M., Bannon, C.C., Bertrand, E.M., Ingalls, A.E., Edwards, B.R., Apprill, A., Boysen, A.K., Bundy, R.M., Chen, H., Ferrer-González, F.X., Fiore, C., Heal, K.R., et al. An ecological framework for microbial metabolites in the ocean ecosystem. Limnology and Oceanography Letters. 10, 5.
     
  • Heal, K.R., K. Raghukumar. Underwater soundscape and vector acoustic observations during a seismic airgun survey near coastal Oregon. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 157, 5.
     
  • Park, J., Heal, K.R., Ingalls, A.E., Groussman, R.D., Bartolek, Z., Armbrust, E.V., Bundy, R.M. Efficient cobalamin uptake and cycling contribute to the lack of cobalamins in the surface cobalt-binding ligand pool in the North Pacific. Limnology and Oceanography Letters. 10, 4.

2022

  • Sacks, J.S., Heal, K.R., Boysen, A.K., Carlson, L.T., Ingalls, A.E. Quantification of dissolved metabolites in environmental samples through cation-exchange solid-phase extraction paired with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods. 20, 11.
     
  • Durham, B.P., Boysen, A.K., Heal, K.R., Carlson, L.T., Boccamazzo, R., Deodato C.R., Qin, W., Cattolico R.A., Armbrust, E.V., Ingalls, A.E. Chemotaxonomic patterns in intracellular metabolites of marine microbial plankton. Frontiers in Marine Science. 9:864796.
     
  • Boysen, A.K., Durham, B.P., Kumler, W., Key, R.S., Heal, K.R., Carlson, L.T. , Groussman, R.D., Armbrust, E.V., Ingalls, A.E. Glycine betaine uptake and metabolism in marine microbial communities.  Environmental microbiology. 24, 5.
     
  • Heal, K.R., Maloney, A., Ingalls, A.E., Bundy, R.M. Diverse arsenic-containing lipids in the surface ocean. Limnology and Oceanography Letters. 7, 1.
     
  • Biller, S.J., Lundeen, R.A. , Hmelo ,L.R. , Becker, K.W., Arellano, A., Dooley, K., Heal, K.R. , Carlson, L.T. , Van Mooy, B.A.S., Ingalls, A.E., Chisholm, S.W. Prochlorococcus extracellular vesicles: Molecular composition and adsorption to diverse microbes. Environmental Microbiology. 24, 1.

2021

  • Heal, K.R., Durham, B.P., Boysen, A.K., Carlson, L.T. , Qin, W., Ribalet, F., White, A.E., Bundy, R.M., Armbrust, E.V., Ingalls, A.E. Marine community metabolomes carry fingerprints of phytoplankton community composition. mSystems. 6, 3.
     
  • Boysen, A.K., Carlson, L.T. , Durham, B.P., Groussman, R.D., Aylward, F.O., Ribalet, F., Heal, K.R., DeLong, E.F., Armbrust, E.V., Ingalls, A.E. Particulate metabolites and transcripts reflect diel oscillations of microbial activity of the ocean. mSystems. 6, 3.

2020

  • Dawson, H.M., Heal, K.R. , Torstensson, A., Carlson, L.T. , Ingalls, A.E., Young, J.N. Large diversity in nitrogen- and sulfur-containing compatible solute profiles in polar and temperate diatoms. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 60, 6.
     
  • Dawson, H.M., Heal, K.R., Boysen, A.K., Carlson, L.T., Ingalls, A.E., Young, J.N., Characterization of compatible solute use in a cultured sea-ice alga, Nitzschia lecointei, and in the environmental algal community of Utqiaġvik, AK using a metabolomics approach. Elementa. 8, 25.
     
  • Lu, X., Heal, K.R., Ingalls, A.E, Doxey, A.C., Neufeld, J.D. Metagenomic and chemical evidence for cobalamin-based microbial niches across diverse soil biomes. ISME Journal. 14, 53–66

2019

  • Heal, K.R., Kellogg, N.A., Carlson, L.T, Lionheart, R., Ingalls, A.E. Metabolic consequences of cobalamin scarcity in diatoms as revealed through metabolomics. Protist. 3, 328-348.
     
  • Durham, B.P., Boysen A.K., Carlson, L.T, Groussman, R.D., Heal, K.R., Cain, K.R., Coesel, S., Morales, R.L., Morris, R. M., Ingalls, A.E., Armbrust, E.V. Sulfonate-based networks between eukaryotic phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria in the surface ocean. Nature Microbiology. 4, 1706–1715.

2018

  • Heal, K.R.*, Qin, W.*, Amin, S.A., Armbrust, E.V., Devol, A.H., Moffett, J.W., Stahl, D.A., Ingalls, A.E. Unexpected accumulation of NO2-cobalamin in ammonia-oxidizing archaea and in the oxygen deficient zone of the Eastern Tropical North Pacific. Environmental Microbiology Reports. 2018, 10. *equal contribution.
     
  • Boysen A.K.*, Heal, K.R.*, Carlson, L.T, Ingalls A.E. Best-matched internal standard normalization in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry as applied to environmental metabolomics. Analytical Chemistry. 2018, 90. *equal contribution.
     
  • Horak, R.E.A., Qin, W., Bertagnolli, A.D., Nelson, A., Heal, K.R., Han, H., Heller, M., Schauer, A., Jeffrey, W., Armbrust, E.V., Moffett, J.W., Ingalls A.E., Stahl, D.A., Devol, A.H. Relative impacts of light, temperature, and reactive oxygen on thaumarchaeal ammonia oxidation in the North Pacific Ocean. Limnology and Oceanography. 2018, 63.

2017    

  • Qin, W., Heal, K.R., Ramdasi, R., Kobelt, J., Martens-Habbena, W., Bertagnolli, A.D., Amin, S.A., Walker, C.B., Urakawa, H., Konneke, M., Devol, A.H., Moffett, J.W., Armbrust, E.V., Jensen, G.J., Ingalls A.E., Stahl, D.A. Nitrosopumilus maritimus gen. nov., sp. nov., Nitrosopumilus cobalaminogenes gen. nov., sp. nov., Nitrosopumilus oxyclinae gen. nov., sp. nov., and Nitrosopumilus ureaphilus gen. nov., sp. nov., four marine ammonia-oxidizing archaea of the phylum Thaumarchaeota. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 2017,12.
     
  • Qin, W., Amin, S.A., Lundeen, R.A., Heal, K.R., Martens-Habbena, W., Turkarslan S., Urakawa, H., Costa, K.C., Hendrickson, E.L., Wang, T., Beck, D.A.C.,  Tequia, S.M., Taub, F., Holmes, A.D., Vajrala, N., Berube, P.M., T.M., Moffett, J.W., Devol, A.H, Baliga, N.S., Arp, D.J., Sayavedra-Soto, Hackett, M., Armbrust, E.V., Ingalls, A.E,  Stahl, D.A. Stress response analyses of a marine ammonia-oxidizing archaeon informs physiological status of environmental populations. ISME Journal. 2017, 12.
     
  • Heal, K.R., Qin, W., Ribalet, F., Bertagnolli, A.D., Coyotes-Maetstas, W., Hmelo, L.R., Moffett, J.W., Devol, A.H., Armbrust, E.V., Stahl, D.A., Ingalls, A.E. Two distinct pools of B12 analogs reveal community interdependencies in the ocean. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2017, 114.

2015    

  • Amin, S.A., Hmelo, L.R., van Tol, H.M., Durham, B.P., Carlson, L.T., Heal, K.R., Morales, R.L., Berthiaume, C.T., Parker, M.S., Djunaedi, B., Ingalls, A.E., Parsek, M.R, Moran, M.A., Armbrust, E.V. Interaction and signalling between a cosmopolitan phytoplankton and associated bacteria. Nature. 2015, 98.

2014    

  • Heal, K.R., Carlson, L.T., Devol, A.H., Armbrust, E.V., Moffett, J.W., Stahl, D.A., Ingalls, A.E. Determination of four forms of vitamin B12 and other B vitamins in seawater by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. 2014, 28.

2013    

  • Martin, M.Z., Mayes M.A., Heal, K.R., Brice, D.J., Wullschleger, S.D. Investigation of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and multivariate analysis for differentiating inorganic and organic C in a variety of soils. Spectrochimica Acta Part B. 2013, 87.

2012    

  • Mayes, M.A., Heal, K.R., Brandt, C.C., Phillips, J.R, Jardine, P.M. Relation between soil order and sorption of dissolved organic carbon in temperate subsoils. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 2012, 76.