Jesse Shapiro

Jesse’s research uses genomics to understand the ecology and evolution of microbes, ranging from freshwater bacterioplankton to the human gut microbiome. His work has helped elucidate the origins of bacterial species, leading to a more unified species concept across domains of life, and has developed genome-wide association study (GWAS) methods tailored for bacteria. He is particularly interested in pathogen evolution, and their evolution within patients, and interactions with members of the resident  microbiome. His laboratory currently has projects on the ecology and evolution of toxic cyanobacterial blooms, cholera infections, and antimicrobial resistance, among others. In collaboration with the Quebec Public Health Lab (LSPQ) and colleagues at the MGC, he co-leads the Coronavirus Sequencing in Quebec (covseq.ca) initiative, resulting in a recent preprint on the early introductions of SARS-Cov-2 into Quebec during the first pandemic wave.