Sunagawa Lab Research
Bioinformatics Tools and Resources
High-throughput sequencing of nucleic acids (and amino acids) has enabled researchers to profile the taxonomic, genomic and transcriptomic composition of environmental and host-associated microbial communities. We are interested in developing bioinformatic tools for taxonomic profiling, prophage detection, taxonomic profiling, transposon analysis and providing a data resource with genomes.
Gastrointestinal Microbiome
In the human gut, microbial communities aid in digesting food, stimulate the immune system and protect against pathogens. As opposed to bacteria and archaea, bacteria-infecting viruses (phages) comprise a much less explored biodiversity with potentially high impact on microbial community composition.
Global Ocean Microbiome
In the ocean, microbial communities are dominant drivers of biogeochemical processes and form the basis of a complex food web that is fueled by the fixation of carbon dioxide by oxygenic photosynthesis. Yet drawing a global picture of their distribution, diversity and function, and understanding the ecological determinants of their composition and response to environmental change remain grand challenges. We collaborate in several multi-national projects, including Tara Oceans, Tara Pacific and Traversing European coastlines (TREC), that have systematically collected microbiome samples across all major oceans.