The overall goal of our research is to understand how different evolutionary processes acting on the genomic level have changed, and still are changing, the biology of microbial eukaryotes. We focus on diplomonads, a peculiar group with the genetic material divided into two separate nuclei in the cell. Knowledge from our research gives a deeper understanding of the origin and evolution of parasites, and the role of eukaryotic microbes in natural environments.

I am using a diplomonads, a group of microorganisms as a model since many years. We are using sequencing technology to do whole genome sequencing of different diplomonads. Using bioinformatic tools we identify differences and similarities within the group, as well as between diplomonads and other organisms. Then we are trying to couple differences in the genome to variations in the biology.