Dr Michael J Cox

Dr Mike Cox is a Research Associate in the Molecular Genetics and Genomics section of the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College.  Initially funded as a Centre for Respiratory Infection Basic Science Fellow, he is currently part of the Mechanisms of Severe Acute Influenza Consortium (MOSAIC) investigating secondary bacterial infections in cases of pandemic flu.  

He completed his PhD in molecular microbial ecology at the University of Warwick and Plymouth Marine Laboratory on methyl halide degrading marine bacteria, linking their function with measurements of biogenic trace gases.  He then completed a postdoctoral position at the University of Liverpool studying cellulose and chitin degrading marine bacteria, primarily in the Irish Sea, but also as part of the Bergen Mesocosm experiment.  

This was then followed by a further postdoctoral position at the University of California San Francisco, where he began applying molecular microbial ecology approaches to the human microbiome, particularly in the respiratory tract of subjects with the genetic disease cystic fibrosis, and in the infant gut using the 16S rRNA PhyloChip, developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Currently, he is using high throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene on the Roche 454 GS Junior platform in order to identify changes in microbial assemblages in the respiratory tract in a wide range of diseases.  These include cystic fibrosis, non-cystic fibrosis bonchiectasis, and asthma, as well as a cases of H1N1 pandemic flu.  

Mike's interests lie in the interactions of the human microbiome with itself and the human host, the phylogeny and function of microbial communities, and in translational applications of microbial ecology in states of health and disease.  

 His Google Scholar page is available here and he can be contacted on twitter here