[1] He is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and an Affiliate Professor in the University of Washington departments of Genome Sciences and Microbiology.
[1][8][9][10] His lab uses a combination of computational and experimental techniques to understand how changes in viral proteins result in immune escape, drug resistance, and shifts in host specificity.
[15] They also showed that the ability to bind human ACE2 is widespread and highly evolvable among natural SARS-related coronaviruses, highlighting the zoonotic potential of this family of viruses.
[18][19] Bloom has also argued that it is important for virologists to ensure that virology research is performed responsibly and does not create biosafety or biosecurity risks.
[21] Bloom's research on the origin of COVID-19 "raised the possibility that the Chinese government might be trying to hide evidence about the pandemic’s early spread" and was the subject of a meeting with Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).