Sunagawa Lab Research
Bioinformatics Tools and Resources
High-throughput sequencing of nucleic acids has enabled researchers to study the taxonomic, genomic, and transcriptomic composition of environmental and host-associated microbial communities. Our lab develops bioinformatic tools for taxonomic profiling, prophage detection, transposon sequencing analysis, and data resources to explore isolate, single-cell, and metagenome-assembled genomes from diverse environments.
Gastrointestinal Microbiome
In the human gut, microbial communities aid in digesting food, stimulate the immune system, and protect against pathogens. In contrast to bacteria and archaea, bacteria-infecting viruses (phages) represent a much less explored component of biodiversity, with potentially significant impacts on microbial community composition.
Global Ocean Microbiome
In the ocean, microbial communities are dominant drivers of biogeochemical processes and form the foundation of a complex food web fueled by the fixation of carbon dioxide through 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—remains a major challenge. We collaborate in several multinational projects, including Tara Oceans, Tara Pacific, and Tara Europa (external page TREC), which have systematically collected microbiome samples across all major oceans.