Nathan Ahlgren

Nathan Ahlgren is an Associate Professor in the Biology department at Clark University. His research focuses on marine microbial ecology, specifically examining how environmental factors and virus-host interactions shape microbial community diversity and structure. He employs traditional culture methods alongside advanced DNA sequencing and bioinformatics approaches to study cyanobacteria, their viruses (cyanophages), and computational tools for viral metagenomics.

• Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography, University of Washington (2008)
• M.S. in Biological Oceanography, University of Washington (2004)
• B.S. in Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1999)

His key research areas include: adaptation of cyanobacteria to oceanic iron niches, phage-host interaction dynamics, development of computational biology tools like VirFinder and VirHostMatcher, urban impact on freshwater microbiomes, and toxic cyanobacterial bloom analysis. Recent publications highlight his work on viral community seasonal patterns, genomic mosaicism in marine cyanobacteria, and computational methods for host prediction from metagenomic data.

Professor Ahlgren has received significant funding including an NSF CAREER grant for his work on phytoplankton adaptation to iron niches. His lab has developed innovative bioinformatics tools for distinguishing host and viral sequences using k-mer pattern analysis. Current projects examine urbanization's effects on microbiomes and computational approaches to viral dark matter analysis.