Evolutionary, Regulatory and Ecological Genomics of Eukaryotic Microbes

Our research group has broad interests in microbial eukaryotes commonly called protists. They are mostly unicellular organisms with complex cells that are invisible to the naked eye but present in various ecosystems on this planet.

Our current research focuses are: 1. evolutionary history and morpho-physiological variation of microalgae (which account for half of CO₂ fixation worldwide); 2. genome regulation and evolution of giant viruses infecting diverse microbial eukaryotes; and 3. dissecting interactions between microalgae and other microbes using single-cell omics approaches.

Our lab belongs to the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, which is part of Academia Sinica, the national academy and foremost research institution of Taiwan. The principal investigator Chuan Ku (顧銓) also holds an adjunct position at National Taiwan University (Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Genome and Systems Biology Degree Program) and is a Global Investigator of European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). We are currently recruiting postdoctoral fellows and Ph.D. students (Join us!). 歡迎來到中研院植微所的真核微生物演化生態研究室。