In this theme we conduct experiments with marine and freshwater host-virus pairs. The overarching goal is to learn more about the role of virus infection of ecologically important species of microalgae and cyanobacteria, in the context of climate change and the everchanging human-induced landscape of our environment. The microbial hosts we work with are marine diatoms, coccolithophores, and freshwater cyanobacteria.

In this theme we explore the natural ability of microalgae and cyanobacteria to produce bioactive compounds during growth, for the discovery of novel antimicrobial compounds. The focus so far has been on the development of methodology to screen laboratory isolates rapidly for antiviral activity against a range of different viruses that differ in their mode of infection and genomic structure. 

In this theme we employ traditional bioinformatics and emerging AI-enabled approaches to sequence and analyze the genomes of large viruses that infect haptophyte algae and harmful algal bloom-forming species. The overarching goal is to reveal the evolutionary trajectory of these viruses and gain additional insights into their functional potential, as many of these viruses code for a large proportion of genes with an unknown function.  

In this collaborative theme with the lab of Prof. Trevor Charles from the University of Waterloo, we develop novel molecular and computational approaches for studying human (e.g., Influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and RSV) and crop pathogens in wastewater.