Bacterial Genome Instability group

Principal Investigator Dr. Olga Bochkareva

The Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (CeMESS), UniVienna

Computational biology, Genomics, Molecular Evolution

google scholar Full CV

Research interests

My research interests cover various topics of microbial genomics from fundamental questions of genome organization and evolution to their applications for human health and climate change problems. I combine evolutionary and genomics approaches, development of new bioinformatic tools and system biology experiments to study the molecular mechanisms and selection forces shaped bacterial genome architecture and colony composition.

My current projects are focused on:

• architecture of bacterial chromosomes: genome rearrangements, horizontal gene transfer, homologous recombination, multi-chromosome bacterial species;
• prediction of genotype-phenotype connections: virulence, antibiotic resistance, host-microbe interections
• heteroigenity of bacterial communities: phase variation mechanisms, colony fitness and adaptation

Funding and Awards

2022 ESPRIT Programme (“Early Stage Programme: Research, Innovation and Training”), funding from Austrian Science Fund (FWF), total amount – 294.015€

2019 ISTplus postdoctoral fellowship, funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754411.