The Josephine Bay Paul Center

The Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution was officially established at the Marine Biological Laboratory in 1996. It is made possible by a generous endowment from the Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation which has had a philanthropic interest in the MBL for the past twenty years...(read more here.)

RESEARCH at the Center explores the evolution and interaction of genomes of diverse organisms that play significant roles in environmental biology and human health. Projects span all evolutionary time scales, from deep phylogenetic divergence of ancestral prokaryotic and eukaryotic lineages to ecological analyses of how members of diverse communities contribute and respond to environmental change.The Center also houses the Mobile Genetic Element Cluster, which includes MBL-affiliated year-round and summer investigators who are studying mobile DNA, and the Imaging Microbial Diversity Cluster, which includes Bay Paul Center and other MBL investigators who are developing new methods to visualize the diversity of microbes and their spatial relationship.

Recent Publications

Sara N. Lundgren, Juliette C. Madan, Jennifer A. Emond, Hilary G. Morrison, Brock C. Christensen, Margaret R. Karagas and Anne G. Hoen. (2018) Maternal diet during pregnancy is related with the infant stool microbiome in a delivery mode-dependent manner. MICROBIOME, 6:109, doi:10.1186/s40168-018-0490-8

Kyra Burnett, Eric Edsinger & Dirk R. Albrecht. (2018) Rapid and gentle hydrogel encapsulation of living organisms enables long-term microscopy over multiple hours. Communications Biology, 1:73, doi:10.1038/s42003-018-0079-6

Mark Welch, J. L. , Hasegawa, Y., McNulty, N. P., Gordon, J. I., & Borisy, G. G. (2017). Spatial organization of a model 15-member human gut microbiota established in gnotobiotic mice. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 114(43), E9105-E9114. doi:10.1073/pnas.1711596114

Mackey, K. R. M., Hunter-Cevera, K., Britten, G. L., Murphy, L. G., Sogin, M. L., & Huber, J. A. (2017). Seasonal Succession and Spatial Patterns of Synechococcus Microdiversity in a Salt Marsh Estuary Revealed through 16S rRNA Gene Oligotyping. FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY, 8, 11 pages. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2017.01496

Devetter, M., Fontaneto, D., Jersabek, C. D., Mark Welch, D. B., May, L., & Walsh, E. J. (2017). Preface: evolving rotifers, evolving science Proceedings of the XIV International Rotifer Symposium. HYDROBIOLOGIA, 796(1), 1-6. doi:10.1007/s10750-017-3241-0

Arkhipova, I. R., Yushenova, I. A., & Rodriguez, F. (2017). Giant Reverse Transcriptase-Encoding Transposable Elements at Telomeres. MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, 34(9), 2245-2257. doi:10.1093/molbev/msx159

Knight, R., Callewaert, C., Marotz, C., Hyde, E. R., Debelius, J. W., McDonald, D., & Sogin, M. L. (2017). The Microbiome and Human Biology. ANNUAL REVIEW OF GENOMICS AND HUMAN GENETICS, VOL 18, 18, 65-86. doi:10.1146/annurev-genom-083115-022438

Gribble, K. E., & Mark Welch, D. B. (2017). Genome-wide transcriptomics of aging in the rotifer Brachionus manjavacas, an emerging model system. BMC GENOMICS, 18, 14 pages. doi:10.1186/s12864-017-3540-x