Michael Seidl

Dr. Michael Seidl is an Associate Professor of Bioinformatics at Utrecht University's Faculty of Science, where he leads the Microbial Genome Evolution Team within the Theoretical Biology & Bioinformatics group. Since May 2024, he also serves as the Program Director for the MSc Bioinformatics and Biocomplexity program. His research focuses on understanding the evolutionary processes that shape microbial genomes, particularly those of plant pathogens.

Dr. Seidl earned his PhD from Utrecht University, with his thesis titled "Exploring Evolution and Biology of Oomycetes: Integrative and Comparative Genomics." Prior to his PhD, he completed his Diploma (Dipl. Biol. Univ.) at Julius Maximilian University Würzburg, Germany in 2008. His academic career includes positions as Assistant Professor at both Utrecht University (2019-2023) and Wageningen University & Research (2016-2019), as well as postdoctoral research at Wageningen University.

Dr. Seidl's research expertise lies at the intersection of evolutionary biology, genomics, and bioinformatics, with a particular focus on microbial plant pathogens. His work investigates the molecular processes driving microbe genome evolution, chromatin's impact on microbial genome function, and the diversity of effector proteins mediating pathogen-host interactions. He employs computational methods and large-scale genomics experiments to unravel how eukaryotic microbes rapidly evolve and adapt to their environments, particularly focusing on fungal and oomycete plant pathogens engaged in co-evolutionary arms races with their hosts.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on pangenome analysis, effector evolution, chromatin organization, and the genomic basis of pathogenicity in plant pathogens. The research employs cutting-edge approaches including long-read sequencing, chromosome conformation capture, and artificial intelligence to study microbial genomes at population, species, and environmental scales. Key themes in his recent work include structural variation, 3D genome organization, and the evolution of accessory genomic regions in pathogens.

• Board member: Netherlands Society for Evolutionary Biology (unpaid)
• Senior editor: Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (unpaid)
• Academic editor: PLOS Pathogens (unpaid)

As a dedicated educator and mentor, Dr. Seidl supervises multiple PhD candidates and MSc students in his Microbial Genome Evolution Team. His team includes current PhD candidates Jasper Bell, Melanie Mendel, Josje Romeijn, Petros Skiadas, and David Giron Villalobos, among others. His previous students who have completed their PhDs under his supervision include Anouk van Westerhoven, Xin Zhang, Edgar Chavarro-Carrero, David Torres, Martin Kramer, Sander Rodenburg, Hesham Gibriel, Xiaoqian Shi-Kunne, Jasper Depotter, and Nadia Ordonez-Roman.

The Microbial Genome Evolution Team operates within Utrecht University's Bioinformatics group, focusing on integrative approaches to understand microbial evolution. The team utilizes both computational and experimental approaches to study how genome variation affects organization, function, and evolution of eukaryotic microbes, particularly plant pathogens.