Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Mike completed at PhD in Evolutionary Genetics at the Institute for Advanced Study at Massy University in New Zealand in 2009. After that he took up a Distinguished Postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Molecular Biology at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. In 2012 Mike moved to the USA to take up a Postdoctoral fellow ship in the FAS Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University.
In 2016, Mike returned to Australia to establish his independent lab in the School of Biological Sciences. He joined the Centre to Impact AMR as a founding member in 2020 and currently leads the Training and Inclusion working group to develop the next generation of AMR experts.
Research interests
Mike is interested in the genetics of adaptation. To study this question, his lab propagates populations of yeast (and other microbes) for 1000's of generations in a variety of laboratory environments. Microbes grow and divide very quickly, providing a means for directly observing evolution as it happens. The goal is to understand how organisms adapt to better fit their environment. We do this by finding the mutations that cause adaptation, determining how these mutations change the genetic program of the cell and trying to predict how organisms will respond to environmental change. Mikes lab employs methods such as high throughput robotic liquid handling, whole genome sequencing and molecular genetic techniques.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Research area keywords
- Evolution
- Genetics
- Mutations
- Genome Evolution
- Genetics, microbial
- Antimicrobial resistance
Network
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Adaptation by DNA download: Experimental evolution of a pangenome
1/03/22 → 31/12/24
Project: Research
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Novel targets from the antibiotic resistance network in multi-drug resistant Helicobacter pylori
McDonald, M. & Kwok-Schuelein, T.
1/01/20 → 31/12/22
Project: Research
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Bacteriophages evolve enhanced persistence to a mucosal surface
Chin, W. H., Kett, C., Cooper, O., Museler, D., Zhang, Y., Bamert, R. S., Patwa, R., Woods, L. C., Devendran, C., Korneev, D., Tiralongo, J., Lithgow, T., McDonald, M. J., Neild, A. & Barr, J. J., 5 Jul 2022, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 119, 27, 10 p., e2116197119.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
4 Citations (Scopus) -
Long-term experimental evolution decouples size and production costs in Escherichia coli
Marshall, D. J., Malerba, M., Lines, T., Sezmis, A. L., Hasan, C. M., Lenski, R. E. & McDonald, M. J., 20 May 2022, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 119, 21, 8 p., e2200713119.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
4 Citations (Scopus) -
Polymyxin dose tunes the evolutionary dynamics of resistance in multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii
Zhao, J., Zhu, Y., Lin, Y. W., Yu, H., Wickremasinghe, H., Han, J., Velkov, T., McDonald, M. J. & Li, J., Jul 2022, In: Clinical Microbiology and Infection. 28, 7, p. 1026.e1-1026.e5 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus) -
Recombination resolves the cost of horizontal gene transfer in experimental populations of Helicobacter pylori
Nguyen, A. N. T., Woods, L. C., Gorrell, R., Ramanan, S., Kwok, T. & McDonald, M. J., 22 Mar 2022, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 119, 12, 10 p., e2119010119.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
5 Citations (Scopus) -
Species interactions constrain adaptation and preserve ecological stability in an experimental microbial community
Barber, J. N., Nicholson, L. C., Woods, L. C., Judd, L. M., Sezmis, A. L., Hawkey, J., Holt, K. E. & McDonald, M. J., 22 Jan 2022, In: The ISME Journal. 16, p. 1442–1452 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access8 Citations (Scopus)
Prizes
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Vice-Chancellor's Diversity and Inclusion Award
Carroll, John (Recipient), Brown, Michael (Recipient), Edgington-Mitchell, Daniel (Recipient), Garcia De La Banda, Maria (Recipient), Gurvich, Caroline (Recipient), Ho, Susie (Recipient), Joschko, L. (Recipient), Maher, JaneMaree (Recipient), McDonald, Mike (Recipient), McGlinn, Edwina (Recipient), McGuigan, Nicholas (Recipient), Morgan, Michael (Recipient), Murray-Zaia, J. (Recipient) & Strengers, Yolande (Recipient), 10 Dec 2020
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)