Our research is focused on the discovery of novel microbes and viruses in environmental sequence data. We use multi-omics (metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, single cell genomics and phylogenomics) and machine learning to identify new divergent lineages and expand the Tree of Life. We then investigate the coding potential to find novel functions that may impact microbiome structure and the surrounding ecosystem.
Research Team
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| Frederik Schulz, Research Scientist | Tomas Tyml, Postdoc | Juan Villada, Postdoc |
| FSchulz@lbl.gov | TTyml@lbl.gov | JVilladaArteaga@lbl.gov |
| Tomas uses traditional cultivation methods along with microscopy and genomics for studying endosymbiotic associations within microbial eukaryotes. With his research, he hopes to broaden our understanding of the roles that these associations have played in the evolutionary history of life. | Juan is a computational microbiologist using approaches at the interface of evolutionary genomics and systems biology to discover novel genetic sources of phenotypic variation in microbial populations. |
Frederik Schulz Bio
Global diversity of Giant Viruses. Image credit: Zosia Rostomian, LBNL
Dr. Schulz is excited about unexplored branches on the Tree of Life, giant viruses and novel microbes with unusual lifestyles. He discovered several microbial symbionts of protists including some that colonize the nucleus of their host cell, and he expanded the known diversity of giant viruses by utilizing global environmental sequence data. He currently tries to elucidate the impact of microbial symbionts and viruses of microeukaryotes on host populations and the environment.
Education
- PhD (2015) in Microbiology and Bioinformatics from University of Vienna (Austria)
Selected Publications
A complete publication list available at Google Scholar.
- Schulz et al. (2020) Giant virus diversity and host interactions through global metagenomics. Nature. 578 (7795), 432-436
- Schulz et al. (2020) Advantages and limits of metagenomic assembly and binning of a giant virus. mSystems. 5 (3) Schulz et al. (2018) Hidden diversity of soil giant viruses. Nature Communications. 9 (1), 1-9
- Schulz et al. (2017) Towards a balanced view of the bacterial tree of life. Microbiome. 5 (1), 1-6
- Schulz et al. (2017) Giant viruses with an expanded complement of translation system components. Science, 356 (6333), 82-85
- Schulz et al. (2016) A Rickettsiales symbiont of amoebae with ancient features. Environmental Microbiology. 18 (8), 2326-2342
- Schulz and Horn (2015) Intranuclear bacteria: inside the cellular control center of eukaryotes. Trends in cell biology. 25 (6), 339-346
- Schulz et al. (2015) Marine amoebae with cytoplasmic and perinuclear symbionts deeply branching in the Gammaproteobacteria. Scientific reports. 5 (1), 1-10
- Schulz et al. (2014) Life in an unusual intracellular niche: a bacterial symbiont infecting the nucleus of amoebae. The ISME Journal. 8 (8), 1634-1644