Jonathan Eisen’s lab is in the UC Davis Genome Center and he holds faculty appointments in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine, and the Department of Evolution and Ecology in the College of Biological Sciences. In addition he holds an Adjunct appointment at the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, CA. Dr. Eisen’s research focuses on the mechanisms underlying the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate).

Most of his work involves the use of high-throughput DNA sequencing methods to characterize microbes and then the use and development of computational methods to analyze this type of data. In particular, his computational work has focused on integrating evolutionary analysis with genome analysis—so-called phylogenomics. Dr. Eisen has been awarded numerous grants and accolades, including the Benjamin Franklin Award (2011) for his efforts to provide open-access to the materials and methods used in the life sciences. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University.