Deciphering the role of microbial dark matter by novel DNA sequencing approaches

Microbial communities underpin all processes in the environment and directly impact human health. Despite their importance, only a tiny fraction of the microbes is known. This is mainly due to difficulties of cultivating microbes from natural systems in the laboratory. This project will develop novel DNA sequencing approaches to enable recovery of microbial genomes from natural systems. The grant will partly fund the applicant and allow recruitment of two PhD students and one postdoc