In 2016, he established his research group at Monash University’s School of Biological Sciences and completed an environmentally-focused ARC DECRA Fellowship.
[18] Greening has studied the use of microbiology to address global challenges, including climate change, infectious disease, and food and water security.
Through microbial genetics and biochemistry, he identified the unique hydrogenase enzymes that mediate this process,[21][22] demonstrated that they are important for long-term survival of dormant bacteria,[23] and resolved their structure and mechanism at atomic detail.
[20] Notably, his team have revealed that some extreme environments such as Antarctic desert soils are driven primarily by atmospheric energy sources,[26] rather than photosynthesis.
He has revealed complex metabolic interactions between bacteria and archaea control methane emissions from a range of systems, including soils,[28] oceans,[29] livestock,[30] geothermal springs, hydrocarbon seeps,[31] tree stems,[32] and termite mounds.
[33] Through this work, he has also identified novel methanotrophic bacteria that consume methane at elevated or atmospheric concentrations, including “Candidatus Methylotropicum kingii” from the phylum Gemmatimonadota.
For the RISE program, he developed quantitative PCR cards that enable rapid and sensitive detection of multiple bacterial, viral, protist, and helminth pathogens across any given human, animal, or environmental sample.