Microbial Genomics

The tools of bioinformatics and microbial genomics are applied to a diverse set of organisms by an outstanding group of molecular biologists within the program, including Drs. Carneiro Da Silva, DasSarma, Fraser, Dunning-Hotopp, Rasko, Ravel, Bruno, Gaykalova, Serre, and Tettelin. Their work is focused on the interplay of various pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbial organisms and the environments in which they reside. Organisms studied include Escherichia coli, Shigella, Chlamydia, halophilic archaea, Streptococcus, Neisseria, Wolbachia, and members of the eukaryotic Apicomplexa. 

Drs. Fraser, Rasko, Ravel, and Tettelin utilize genomic approaches to study human microbiomes in health and disease (including those found in the gut, lung, and vaginal cavities), to explore population genomics of bacterial pathogens, and to identify possible novel vaccine antigens. Dr. Fraser is the Director of the Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS), a genome research center on the UMB campus, and Drs. Carneiro da Silva, Dunning-Hotopp, Rasko, Ravel, Bruno, Serre, Gaykalova, and Tettelin are all research scientists at IGS. Further information about research can be found in the fungal pathogenesis, bacteriology, and parasitology research sections.