MIT Microbiology PhD Program

Scientists track evolution of microbes on the skin’s surface

MIT researchers find Staphylococcus aureus can rapidly evolve within a single person’s microbiome. In people with eczema, S. aureus tends to evolve to a variant with a mutation in a specific gene...

Spotlight: Origins of life

Spotlight: In search of the principles of life

Directing evolution in search of a better plastic-degrading enzyme

Graduate student En Ze Linda Zhong-Johnson is creating new methods to measure and enhance enzyme activity — which she hopes will help restore a plastic-choked world.

Zeroing in on the origins of Earth’s “single most important evolutionary innovation”

MIT scientists estimate that oxygenic photosynthesis — the ability to turn light and water into energy, releasing oxygen— first evolved on Earth between 3.4 and 2.9 billion years ago.

Machine learning uncovers potential new TB drugs

Using a machine-learning approach that incorporates uncertainty, MIT researchers identified several promising compounds that target a protein required for the survival of the bacteria that cause...