Author: Jonathan Eisen

I am a Professor at U. C. Davis. My lab is in the UC Davis Genome Center and I hold appointments in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine and the Department of Evolution and Ecology in the College of Biological Sciences. My research focuses on the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate). To study this I focus on sequencing and analyzing genomes of organisms, especially microbes and using phylogenomic analysis (see my lab site here which has more information on lab activities).  In addition to research, I am heavily involved in the Open Access publishing and Open Science movements.

Postdoctoral fellowships in fungal taxonomy and genomics; one focused on fungi from dust #microBEnet

By Jonathan Eisen   Posted in Job postings
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POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS IN FUNGAL TAXONOMY AND GENOMICS. Keith Seifert is looking for two post-docs, one interested in the identification of microfungi, and the other interested in participating in a genome project, for two-year positions in Ottawa, Canada. The first position is funded by the A.P. Sloan Foundation. A large and diverse collection of 6000-7000 strains isolated by …

Is your dishwasher trying to kill you? Maybe, but no evidence of that from this work

By Jonathan Eisen   Posted in News Scholarly Literature (Journals, Books, Reports)
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A new paper coming out in the journal Fungal Biology is getting a lot of press.  The paper is: Dishwashers — A man-made ecological niche accommodating human opportunistic fungal pathogens Normally, I try to avoid writing up blog posts relating to papers that are not at least freely available online so that anyone out there can …

More on microbes and art: Mold attack on frescoes and stone walls of Gradac monastery

By Jonathan Eisen   Posted in Scholarly Literature (Journals, Books, Reports)
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For those interested in microbes and art, here is an article for you: Mold attack on frescoes and stone walls of Gradac monastery The PDF of the article is available here. Basically they looked at biofilms and molds on stone frescoes because of the possibility that they may lead to deterioration of the frescoes.

Forget about snakes on a plane – how about viruses on a plane? #flu #influenza

By Jonathan Eisen   Posted in News Scholarly Literature (Journals, Books, Reports)
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Interesting new article in Time Magazine’s healthland: A New Study Shows That Sitting Close to a Sick Person on a Flight Can Make You Sick – – TIME Healthland. The article is based on a new paper in Emerging Infectious Diseases: Transmission of Influenza on International Flights, May 2009 which basically examines transmission dynamics of flu within …

Fun w/ Google Scholar: found interesting Master’s thesis on airborne microbes and biosolids

By Jonathan Eisen   Posted in Scholarly Literature (Journals, Books, Reports)
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A potentially very interesting master’s thesis has just shown up in my weekly automated searches of Google Scholar: OhioLINK ETD: Lindelof, Kara. The work is titled “Contribution of Biosolids-derived Bioaerosols to the Airborne Microbial Population” and it is by Kara Lidelof at the University of Toledo.  And it is available for free (they say Open Access …