Name: Prof. Mark Achtman
Position: Professor
T: 353 (0)21 4901979
F: 353 (0)21 4901932
E: m.achtman@ucc.ie
Biography
Academic Career
1963-1969: PhD Univ. Calif. Berkeley, USA.
1969-1971: Post-doc, MRC, Edinburgh, UK.
1971-1972: Post-doc, Max-Planck, Tübingen, Germany.
1975 : Habilitation, TU Berlin, Germany
Additional Positions and Awards
1972-2000: Group Leader, Max-Planck Institute for molecular Genetics, Berlin
2000-2009: Group Leader, Max-Planck Institute for infectious biology, Berlin
2004: Main Prize, German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology
2007-2012: SFI Principle Investigator
Research interests and expertise
- Population genetics of bacterial pathogens
- Microbial phylogeography
Research
Research Overview
- Co-inventor of multilocus sequence typing
- Shared ancient demography between Helicobacter pylori and humans
- Delineation of genetically monomorphic pathogens, including Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi and Yersinia pestis
- Genomic sequences and bioinformatic analyses in H. pylori, Helicobacter acinonychis, Neisseria meningitidis, Typhi and Y. pestis
Selected Recent Publications
10 top publications since 1998 (citations):
H-Index:54
Moodley, Y., B. Linz, Y. Yamaoka, …, P. Siba, D. Y. Graham, B. J. Marshall, and M. Achtman . 2009. The peopling of the Pacific from a bacterial perspective. Science 323 :527-530. (9)
Nübel, U., P. Roumagnac, …, W. Witte, and M. Achtman . 2008. Frequent emergence and limited geographic dispersal of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus . PNAS 105 :14130-14135. (19)
Linz, B., F. Balloux, Y. Moodley, …, S. Suerbaum, and M. Achtman* . 2007. An African origin for the intimate association between humans and Helicobacter pylori . Nature 445 :915-918. (87)
Roumagnac, P., F.-X. Weill, C. Dolecek, …, J. Farrar, G. Dougan, and M. Achtman* . 2006. Evolutionary history of Salmonella Typhi. Science 314 :1301-1304. (38)
Wirth, T., D. Falush, R. Lan, …, M. C. Maiden, H. Ochman, and M. Achtman* . 2006. Sex and virulence in Escherichia coli : an evolutionary perspective. Mol. Microbiol . 60 :1136-1151. (101)
Achtman, M* ., G. Morelli, P. Zhu, …, J. Parkhill, L. E. Lindler, E. Carniel, and P. Keim. 2004. Microevolution and history of the plague bacillus, Yersinia pestis.PNAS 101 :17837-17842. (100)
Falush, D., T. Wirth, B. Linz, J. K. Pritchard, …, , M. Achtman *, and S. Suerbaum. 2003. Traces of human migrations in Helicobacter pylori populations. Science 299 :1582-1585. (208)
Achtman, M* ., K. Zurth, …, A. Guiyoule, and E. Carniel. 1999. Yersinia pestis , the cause of plague, is a recently emerged clone of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis . PNAS 96 :14043-14048. (322)
Maiden, M. C. J., …, M. Achtman* , and B. G. Spratt. 1998. Multilocus sequence typing: a portable approach to the identification of clones within populations of pathogenic microorganisms. PNAS 95 :3140-3145. (977)
Suerbaum, S., J. Maynard Smith, ..., N. H. Smith, E. Kunstmann, I. Dyrek, and M. Achtman* . 1998. Free recombination within Helicobacter pylori . PNAS 95 :12619-12624. (296)
Research funding and grants
SFI Programme Grant, 2007. Microbial Phylogeography, 05/FE1/B882
SFI Equipment Supplement, 2008, 05/FE1/B882/EC07
SFI North-South Supplement, 2009, Diversity of Salmonella. In Ireland, 05/FE1/B882/NSs
NIH co-PI, Genomics of S. enterica, 2008, 1
R01 GM084318-01A1
BNP-Paribas 2008, Collaborative research with Institut Pasteur, Paris.
Research
Groups and collaborators
ERI Microbial phylogeography:
Dr. Daniel Falush
Dr. Yajun Song
Dr. James Hale
Dr. Brian O’Farrell
Dr. Angela McCann
Jana Haase
Ronan Murphy
Vimalkumar Velayudhan
Collaborations with:
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Dougan, Parkhill)
Institut Pasteur Paris (Brisse, Carniel, Weill)
Medical School Hannover (Suerbaum)
All-Ireland Salmonella Network
Numerous others
Research Projects in the group
- High throughput microbiology, sequencing and genotyping
- MLST of Salmonella enterica
- MLST of Escherichia coli
- MLSA of Yersinia
- Genotyping of Listeria monocytogenes
- SNP typing of monomorphic pathogens
Links