The Environmental Engineering Molecular Biology Laboratory houses the instrumentation neccessary to acquire DNA from environmental samples, conduct some DNA-based analyses, and to prepare samples for further analyses in OSU's Central Services Laboratory. The primary focus of our molecular work has been to identify microorganisms in laboratory cultures and from environmental samples by analysis of their ribosomal DNA genes (phylogeny). One project included the identification of aerobic organisms able to cometabolically degrade a variety of chlorinated solvents when fed hydrocarbons as a growth substrate. We have isolated some of the solvent-degrading organisms and have bioaugmented them to a test aquifer to determine if they would provide the needed function of pollutant transformation and to see if we could track their transport through the subsurface. We are currently using real-time PCR techniques to enumerate the bioaugmented bacteria in environmental samples taken throughout the aquifer test zone.