Research Directions

Microbes dominate planetary biomass, play essential roles in nutrient recycling, can cause disease, and are an integral part of the healthy human body. Their genomes contain records of past evolutionary events, from which we can decipher how microbes evolve and adapt to their environments. Recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies brought us an avalanche of data: thousands of genomes and terabases of environmental DNA (metagenomes). We mine these data sets (1) to assess the impact of horizontal gene transfer on microbial populations; (2) to find new ways to characterize microbial communities; and (3) to track down genomic signatures of microbial adaptations.

Understanding of microbial communities through analyses of vast metagenomic datasets

Inference of Evolutionary Processes through Phylogenetic Tree Shapes

Gene Transfer Agents and their role in Evolution of Prokaryotes

Protein Thermoadaptation

Prokaryotic Genome Organization