Dr. Eugene Koonin

Eugene V. Koonin is an NIH Distinguished Investigator and leader of the Evolutionary Genomics Group at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NIH). He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology in 1983 from Moscow State University, joined the NIH in 1991 and became a Senior Investigator in 1996. His research interests focus on evolutionary genomics of prokaryotes, eukaryotes and viruses, host-parasite coevolution, evolution of cancer, and general theory of the evolution of life. Dr. Koonin made extensive contributions to the study of the functions and evolution of CRISPR systems. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, National Academy of Medicine of the USA, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and European Molecular Biology Organization.