Mark J. Pallen

Mark J. Pallen is a Group Leader at the Quadram Institute and Professor of Microbial Genomics at the University of East Anglia. His research bridges bioinformatics and laboratory-based microbial genomics, focusing on bacterial evolution, pathogenomics, and metagenomics. He directs the MRC Doctoral Training Programme Microbes, Microbiomes and Bioinformatics and leads the £8.4m CLIMB project (Cloud Infrastructure for Microbial Bioinformatics).

• Education: BA and MBBS from the University of Cambridge, MD from University of London, PhD from Imperial College London (Gordon Dougan’s lab).

Research Interests span:

• Bacterial genomics – studying E. coli, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Brachyspira in human and animal health.
• Metagenomics – pioneering culture-independent pathogen detection in outbreaks and historical samples, including medieval Brucella and leprosy genomes.
• Synthetic biology – developing smart probiotics and exploring Escherichia diversity in chicken gut microbiomes and critically ill patients.

Scientific Contributions include foundational work on:

• Genomic epidemiology of multidrug-resistant pathogens.
• Evolution of bacterial flagella, challenging creationist views through comparative genomics.
• CLIMB infrastructure for UK microbial bioinformatics.

Public Engagement highlights:

• Authoring The Rough Guide to Evolution and The Last Days of Smallpox.
• Commissioning Baba Brinkman’s Rap Guide to Evolution.
• Coordinating science communication initiatives and participating in In Our Time broadcasts.