Researcher | Research Overview
By developing and exploiting large-scale, high throughput experimental genetic screening tools, combined with the development and implementation of bioinformatic and computational (e.g., machine learning) approaches, the van Opijnen aims to understand a microbe and the phenotypes it generates in interaction with drugs and/or its host as a complete system. Approaches explored are thereby geared towards determining the relationship between a microbe’s genotype and its (potential) phenotype(s). To accomplish this the lab broadly focuses on three areas:
- Phenotypic Perturbation Screening
By developing tailored genetic screening tools based on for instance (single cell)Tn-Seq, CRISPRi and RNA-Seq, the van Opijnen Lab untangles phenotypes that can range from simple one-to-one, to highly complex relationships between all the individual genetic components in the genome in interaction with drugs and/or the host.
- Data Integration and Analysis
Genomic data storage, integration and analyses are key to gain new biological insights that will lead to next generation diagnostics and treatment strategies. The van Opijnen Lab is developing a suite of cloud-based services that bestows any scientist with the power of analyses and interpretation.
- Network building to develop new strategies
By combining the experimental, screening and computational tools the lab develops and implements, it aims to enable rapid and comprehensive multidimensional profile building for any bacterium or infectious disease. These profiles and networks are subsequently mined to predict the emergence of drug and/or immune escape, develop new potential treatment strategies including drug and antibody approaches, and identify potent vaccine targets.
Researcher | Research Background
Dr. van Opijnen received his BA from the University of Amsterdam as well as his MS in evolutionary genetics, for which he performed research at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Rochester in New York. He received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam Medical School for his work on the evolution and genomics of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
As a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Andrew Camilli at Tufts University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute he developed Tn-Seq and worked on the systems biology of bacterial pathogens. He is the author of several popular science books, and previously was an Associate Professor of Microbial Systems Biology at Boston College, and the Director of the Microbial Innovation lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.