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Pawel Michalak, PhD
Pawel Michalak

Pawel Michalak, PhD

Associate Professor for Cell Biology and Physiology
Campus: 
Virginia Campus
Office: 

CMMID Room 108

Department/Discipline: 
Cell Biology and Physiology
Phone: 
540-231-6904
Email: 
pmichalak [at] vt.vcom.edu
Curriculum Vitae: 
PDF icon michalak_pawel_cv.pdf

Research Interests

Associate Professor at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, focusing on comparative genomics, bioinformatics, and One Health; head of the Integrative Genome Analysis Lab (IGAL) at the Center for One Health Research. His team has employed an integrative approach with a variety of molecular, computational and modeling techniques, including NextGen sequencing of entire genomes, epigenomes, and transcriptomes to rigorous understanding how complexity elaborates from genomes through gene regulatory networks, and how it evolves over generations in response to environmental stress and intragenomic challenges. He worked in nine universities in four countries across three continents. His research resulted in a book (another is in preparation), multiple book chapters, and about 70 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals, including “Science”, “Nature”, “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA”, and “Proceedings of the Royal Society”, already cited about 1,800 times and popularized by various public media.

Education

2003 Louisiana State University  Postdoc
2002 University of Chicago Postdoc
2000 University of Haifa, Israel Postdoc
2000 University of Bialystok, Poland Postdoc
1997 Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland PhD-Biology 
1993 Unversity of Lodz, Poland MS-Biology

View Full Publications List

 

Current Research Projects

  • Development of an eDNA protocol for detecting candy, variegate, and Kanawha darters
  • Genomic characterization of the invasive Longhorned tick and its microbiota including the known pathogen, Theileria orientalis
  • Genomics of two tree squirrels (Sciurus niger and S. Carolinensis)
  • Hawaiian hoary bat conservation genetics: diet composition and population structure
  • IGPOH-NR: An Integrative Genomics Platform for One Health – Noncoding RNAs
  • Third-generation DNA sequencing approaches to rapid characterization of drinking water contamination in El Salvador, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic

Publications

Year Published Faculty Citation PMID
In press

Van Hoek ML, Prickett MD, Settlage RE, Kang L, Michalak P, Vliet KA, Bishop B. The Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) genome and identification of innate immunity genes and clusters. BMC Genomics. In press.
2019

Lang JJ, Snyder RJ, Clapsadl MD, Michalak P, Kang L, Pérez-Fuentetaja A. Morphometric differentiation and gene flow in emerald shiners (Notropis atherinoides) from the lower Great Lakes and the Niagara River. Journal of Great Lakes Research. 2019 Apr;45(2):324-332. DOI: 10.1016/j.jglr.2018.12.002.
2019

Aggarwal DD, Rybnikov S, Cohen I, Frenkel Z, Rashkovetsky E, Michalak P, Korol AB. Desiccation-induced changes in recombination rate and crossover interference in Drosophila melanogaster: evidence for fitness-dependent plasticity. Genetica. 2019 Jun 25. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 31240599.

 31240599
2019

Kang L, Rashkovetsky E, Michalak K, Garner HR, Mahaney JE, Rzigalinski BA, Korol A, Nevo E, Michalak P. Genomic divergence and adaptive convergence in Drosophila simulans from Evolution Canyon, Israel. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Jun 11;116(24):11839-11844. PMID: 31127048.

 31127048
2019

Kinney N, Titus-Glover K, Wren JD, Varghese RT, Michalak P, Liao H, Anandakrishnan R, Pulenthiran A, Kang L, Garner HR. CAGm: a Repository of Germline Microsatellite Variations in the 1000 Genomes Project, Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 Jan 8;47(D1):D39-D45. PMID: 30329086.

 30329086
2018

Michalak P, Kang L. Unique divergence of the breast cancer 2 (BRCA2) gene in Neanderthals. Hereditas. 2018 Nov 3;155:34. PMID: 30410429.

 30410429
2018

Michalak P, Kang L, Schou MF, Garner HR, Loeschcke V. Genomic signatures of experimental adaptive radiation in Drosophila. Mol Ecol. 2019 Feb;28(3):600-614. PMID: 30375065.

 30375065
2018

Velmurugan KR, Michalak P, Kang L, Fonville NC, Garner HR. Dysfunctional DNA repair pathway via defective FANCD2 gene engenders multifarious exomic and transcriptomic effects in Fanconi anemia. Mol Genet Genomic Med. 2018 Nov;6(6):1199-1208. PMID: 30450770.

 30450770
2018

Budnick JA, Sheehan LM, Kang L, Michalak P, Caswell CC. Characterization of three small proteins in Brucella abortus linked to fucose utilization. J Bacteriol. 2018 Aug 24;200(18). pii: e00127-8. PMID: 29967118.

 29967118
2017

Kang L, George P, Price DK, Sharakhov I, Michalak P. Mapping Genomic Scaffolds to Chromosomes Using Laser Capture Microdissection in Application to Hawaiian Picture-Winged Drosophila. Cytogenet Genome Res. 2017;152(4):204-212. PMID: 29130948.

 29130948
2017

Yablonovitch AL, Fu J, Li K, Mahato S, Kang L, Rashkovetsky E, Korol AB, Tang H, Michalak P, Zelhof AC, Nevo E, Li JB. Regulation of gene expression and RNA editing in Drosophila adapting to divergent microclimates. Nat Commun. 2017 Nov 17;8(1):1570. PMID: 29146998.

 29146998
2017

Michalak P, Kang L, Ciparis S, Henley W, Jones J, Phipps A, Hallerman E. Freshwater mussels exposed to arsenic and sulfate show contrasting patterns of gene expression. In Organismal and Molecular Malacology (Ed. S. Ray). 2017 Aug 16:99-117. DOI: 10.5772/67674.
2017

Kang L, Garner HR, Price DK, Michalak P. A Test for Gene Flow among Sympatric and Allopatric Hawaiian Picture-Winged Drosophila. J Mol Evol. 2017 Jun;84(5-6):259-66. PMID: 28492967.

 28492967