Professor Gene Tyson
Faculty of Health,
School of Biomedical Sciences
Biography
Over the last 15 years, Professor Tyson has established himself as an internationally recognised expert in the development and application of meta-omic and bioinformatic approaches to understand microbial communities in clinical and environmental systems. His research has had substantial reach and significance, including papers demonstrating the development and application of metagenomics (Nature, 2004), metatranscriptomics (PNAS, 2008; Nature 2009), and metaproteomics (Science, 2005) to microbial communities. These approaches bypass traditional cultivation bottlenecks, and have revolutionised how the structure and function of microbial communities is studied. This research has paved the way for numerous important discoveries in microbiology, including work by CI Tyson’s team which has led to identifying important microbial lineages that regulate the Earth’s carbon cycle (Nature, 2015; Science 2018), previously unknown bacterial and archaeal lineages (Nature Microbiology, 2016; Nature Microbiology, 2017), and characterisation of novel microbial metabolic functions (Nature, 2013; Nature, 2018). Professor Tyson's team has also made important contributions to the development of novel bioinformatic tools for the analysis of meta-omic data (Nature Methods, 2012; Nucleic Acids, 2013, Bioinformatics, 2014; Genome Research, 2015; Nucleic Acids, 2018). These widely used and highly cited bioinformatic tools (>5,000 citations) have undoubtedly helped the widespread adoption of meta-omics in microbiology.Personal details
Positions
- Professor and Australian Laureate Fellow
Faculty of Health,
School of Biomedical Sciences
Research field
Microbiology, Genetics, Medical Microbiology
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD
Experience
In addition to the knowledge impacts of Professor Tyson’s academic research, significant economic impact for Australia have been achieved through commercialisation of his research. Recognising the potential of meta-omics to understand the role of the microbiome in human health and disease, Professor Tyson co-founded Microba, a microbial biotechnology company aimed at developing microbiome-derived diagnostics and therapeutics. Microba currently employs 50+ people in Australia and the United States, with operations in seven different countries.
Publications
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Gene, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Supervision
Supervision topics
- Application of fluorescence-activated cell sorting and confocal microscopy for the study of the microbial communities responsible for nutrient removal from domestic wastewater
- Using machine learning to understand how the world’s microbiomes are changing due to climate
- Development of a multiplexed gut micro-bioreactor for functional screening of gut microbiome
- Improving human health through the microbiome
- Illuminating the microbial world using genome-based fluorescence microscopy
- Strain-level characterisation and visualisation of microbial communities associated with inflammatory bowel disease
- Defining human immune responses to a healthy gut microbiome
- Comprehensive strain-level characterisation of microbial communities associated with inflammatory bowel disease
- From a descriptive to a predictive understanding of the human microbiome
- BIOM05 - Application of fluorescence microscopy for the visualization of methane-oxidizing microorganisms in the environment
- CMR02 - Using machine learning to predict emission from a climate-critical ecosystem