Mitchell Sogin
This biographical article is written encyclopedic . (March 2023) |
Mitchell Sogin is an American microbiologist. He is a distinguished senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His research investigates the evolution and diversity of single-celled organisms.[1]
Early life and education
Sogin grew up in Chicago and went to the University of Illinois on a swimming scholarship, intending to become a doctor. Instead he continued on at the university to complete a MS in Industrial Microbiology under Z. John Ordal in 1967 and a PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Biology under Carl R. Woese in 1972.
Career
Sogin obtained a BS in Chemistry and Microbiology at the
Research initiatives
Sogin’s molecular phylogeny from ribosomal RNA sequences provided a framework for reconstructing the evolution of microbial eukaryotes.[4] He documented early diverging eukaryotic lineages, giving the earliest evidence of a link between animals and fungi, to the exclusion of all other eukaryotes. His work demonstrated that the AIDS-related pathogen Pneumocystis shares a recent common ancestor with fungi instead of with the parasitic protozoa that cause malaria.[5] He also discovered the “rare biosphere” which represents most of Earth’s microbial diversity.[6] Sogin was the first to use PCR to amplify and sequence ribosomal RNA genes and to use next generation DNA sequencing to characterize complex microbial communities, which now dominates the field of molecular microbial ecology, including efforts underway within the Human Microbiome Project. He has contributed to analytical strategies to determine the taxonomic identity of marker gene surveys and with David Mark Welch of the Josephine Bay Paul Center has established the Visualization of Microbial Population Structures (VAMPS) website, which offers tools for comparing microbial community populations.[7] As part of the Census of Marine Life, Sogin formed and led the International Census of Marine Microbes. His group currently collaborates on studies of human microbiome dynamics with Eugene Chang of the University of Chicago. They study pouchitis, a model for ulcerative colitis. Sogin also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology (formerly Journal of Protozoology), Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Protist (formerly Archiv für Protistenkunde), Applied and Environmental Microbiology, and Environmental Microbiology.[2]
Further reading
- Animals and fungi closer than anyone expected
- Thousands of microbes in one gulp
- Pollution, human health tracked with sewage microbes
References
- ^ David Quammen, The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018), pp. 57-64.
- ^ a b Sogin, Mitchell (October 2016). "Curriculum Vita" (PDF). Marine Biological Lab. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
- ^ "Deep Carbon Observatory Executive Committee | Deep Carbon Observatory Portal". deepcarbon.net. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
- ^ "Sogin Lab". Bay Paul Center. 2012-05-25. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
- S2CID 38637886.
- PMID 16880384.
- ^ "VAMPS - Home". vamps.mbl.edu. Retrieved 2017-06-19.