Mitchell Sogin

Sogin became a professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 1980 and in 1989 joined the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole as a senior scientist.

[3] Sogin’s molecular phylogeny from ribosomal RNA sequences provided a framework for reconstructing the evolution of microbial eukaryotes.

His work demonstrated that the AIDS-related pathogen Pneumocystis shares a recent common ancestor with fungi instead of with the parasitic protozoa that cause malaria.

[6] Sogin was the first to use PCR to amplify and sequence ribosomal RNA genes and to use next generation DNA sequencing to characterize complex microbial communities, which now dominates the field of molecular microbial ecology, including efforts underway within the Human Microbiome Project.

He has contributed to analytical strategies to determine the taxonomic identity of marker gene surveys and with David Mark Welch of the Josephine Bay Paul Center has established the Visualization of Microbial Population Structures (VAMPS) website, which offers tools for comparing microbial community populations.