About
Eugene Koonin, PhD
Distinguished Investigator, Computational Biology Branch, NCBIMy principal research interest include: evolutionary genomics, in particular, of microbes of viruses; discovery of new viruses and antivirus defense systems by analysis of genomic and metagenomic data; theoretical and empirical study of virus-host coevolution; evolution of cancer genomes.
Contact Information
Building 38A, 8600 Rockville Pike MSC 6075 Bethesda, MD 20894
Tel: (301) 435-5913
Research Interests
I am interested in a broad variety of theoretical and empirical problems in biological evolution. In particular, I invest major effort into the discovery of novel viruses and microbial antivirus defense systems in genomic and metagenomic sequence data. One of my central scientific interests is understanding the ubiquitous co-evolution of genetic parasites and their hosts, and its effect of the evolution of the organizational complexity of life. Starting from these studies, I am attempting to develop approach for the construction of a general mathematical theory of the evolution of complexity. I am also deeply interested in the evolution of cancers and how the principles of evolutionary biology and population genetics can be applied to understand cancer progression and prognosis.