Pathogen Genomics / Microbiome

Anita Schurch

Research Group

Anita Schurch
We develop bioinformatics tools and analyze data to track the transmission of bacterial pathogens and mobile genetic elements in the context of antibiotic resistance.
Group name: Medical Microbiology – Bioinformatics (MMB-BioIT)
Research field: Pathogen Genomics / Microbiome
Comparative Genomics, De Novo Assembly, Genomics, Metagenomics, Microbiomics, Phylogenomics, Sequence Analysis

Contact

Heidelberglaan 100
3584 CH
Utrecht
Department / Institute: Medical Microbiology
Office: G04.646
Building: UMC Utrecht
a.c.schurch@umcutrecht.nl
31887551318
https://mmb-bioit.nl/

Our Research

In microbial genomics, DNA sequencing technologies are employed to analyze hundreds or thousands of bacterial genomes. These data are processed using computational tools to track local and global transmission of bacterial pathogens and to provide information on the acquisition of determinants that contribute to virulence, resistance to antibiotics or other fitness traits.

We also generate and compare targeted microbial community profiling (16S) of the human microbiome in healthy and diseased patients. For higher-resolution taxonomic profiling of the human microbiome, to annotate genes and metabolic pathways and to assemble partial to full genomes of microorganisms, we use metagenomic data.