Olga Zhaxybayeva

Olga Zhaxybayeva is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Adjunct Associate Professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth College. She is a Simons Foundation Investigator in Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems, focusing on microbial evolution and bioinformatics.

• B.S. in Applied Mathematics (Kazakh State University, 1997)
• Ph.D. in Genetics (University of Connecticut, 2004)
• Postdoctoral Training in Microbial Evolution (Dalhousie University, 2005-2009)

Her research explores how microbes evolve through horizontal gene transfer, genomic signatures of adaptation, and computational modeling of microbial systems. She investigates gene transfer agents (GTAs) as viriforms and thermoadaptation in Thermotogota phylum.

Her recent articles highlight GTAs' co-evolution with stress response genes, thermoadaptation genetics, and computational methods for detecting horizontal gene transfer. These works span microbiology, evolutionary genetics, and bioinformatics.

Scientific Awards

• Simons Foundation Investigator in Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems

She has trained 16 students/postdocs and received 5 grants. Her lab at Life Sciences Center Room 333 Hanover, NH, collaborates internationally on microbial genome analysis and systematics.