We are interested in the ecological and evolutionary factors shaping bacteriophage genomes.
We use laboratory work and bioinformatics to understand how these parts influence the virus itself, their bacterial hosts, and the microbiomes they exist in.
We work by analyzing genomes in silico, synthesizing them in vitro, and generally dissecting and reassembling phages - specifically single-stranded DNA phages of the family Microviridae.
Currently, we are mostly focused on studying their interaction with bacterial hosts and competition with other phages, as well as exploring microvirus diversity in humans and elsewhere.
In the future, we hope to leverage knowledge gained from this research into building customized phages for phage therapy and ecosystem engineering.
The lab is operational, new people have joined, and science news.
As we are continuing the lab setup, Paul Kirchberger advertises the lab and microviruses in general with his keynote talk "Causes and Consequences of Lysogeny in Microviruses" at the International...
The Kirchberger lab, shared with Prof. Reed Stubbendieck's lab, is (not quite) open for business.