BESE DIVISION RESEARCH AREA:
MICROBIOLOGY
Microbes are ubiquitous and dominant components of the biosphere playing fundamental roles in maintaining health and disease in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. Microbial activities are critical for global food and health security, environmental ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles and biotechnological applications. At KAUST, we have taken a multidisciplinary approach using state-of-the-art technologies and computational biology to study various key microbiological processes and biotic associations.
Research in Microbiology at KAUST is primarily focused on increasing our understanding of the role of microbial components and adaptive biology in various ecosystems including complex aquatic and terrestrial settings and industrial processes under variable environmental conditions. Examples of these streams of research include studying ecology and evolution of bacteria, viruses, archaea, fungi and protists in marine and terrestrial ecosystems, molecular communications and signal transduction in health and disease and environmental engineering applications in water treatment. We strive for translatable output from our research in addition to making basic and fundamental discoveries.