Exploring the Microbial World

Most of the diversity of life on earth is contained within the genomes of the planet’s microbes, including bacteria and particularly viruses, which infect every known form of cellular life on the planet. Arguably the most important biological realm for exploration is the microbial world on earth. Exploration within the microbial world has the potential to generate solutions to some of the major problems and mysteries on our planet, including the future of pandemics, the origins and causes of cancer, and the fundamental boundaries and limits of life. In this seminar, I will discuss contemporary exploration in the microbial world with particular emphasis on the activities done in my own research group on viral discovery and diversity.