Gene Tyson

Biography

Professor Gene Tyson is a microbial ecologist whose research applies culture-independent molecular approaches to understand the structure and function of microbial communities in the environment. During Gene’s dissertation research (University of California, Berkeley) he was the lead author on one of the first studies to use metagenomics. In this work he investigated the metabolic potential and population diversity of microbial communities involved in acid mine drainage (AMD) generation, and demonstrated, for the first time, that metagenomic data could be used to reconstruct near complete genomes directly from environmental samples. Professor Tyson’s group at the University of Queensland, is now using the metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches he helped pioneer, to investigate microbial communities in a wide range of different communities in both engineered systems and natural environments. His group is continuing to develop new ways to analyze omic data by leading efforts in error correction for high-throughput sequencing platforms, single cell sequencing and deep spatio-temporal metagenomics

Research Interest

• Molecular microbial ecology • Microbial diversity • Microbial evolution • The role of microorganisms in the biogeochemical cycles that underpin life on Earth • Phage – host interactions and co-evolution