Thijs Ettema

Thijs Ettema is a Full Professor of Microbiology at Wageningen University & Research, leading research on archaea and the evolutionary origins of eukaryotes. His work integrates genomics, phylogenetics, and cell biology to explore microbial diversity and ancient microbial lineages.

Education and Affiliations:

• PhD in Microbiology (Wageningen University)
• Principal Investigator at the Microbiology Laboratory
• Co-founder of the SeqCode initiative for archaeal taxonomy

Research Interests:

• Archaeal evolution and metabolism
• Eukaryotic origins via symbiosis
• Genomic adaptations in uncultured microbes
• Microbial diversity in extreme environments

His studies reveal how archaeal lineages (e.g., Asgard archaea) bridge prokaryotes and eukaryotes, with implications for understanding cellular complexity and early life.

Articles Overview: Recent work focuses on archaeal cell biology, novel microbial lineages, and evolutionary genomics. Key themes include Asgard archaeal morphology, methanogen metabolism, and phylogenetic reconstructions of microbial relationships.

Awards:

• NWO Vici Grant 2019 (€1.5M) for microbial ancestry research

Advising & Grants:

• Supervises 5+ PhD students in archaeal genomics and evolution
• Leads projects on culturing archaea and synthetic biology applications
• Secured €5M in grants for microbial evolution studies

Labs/Teams:

• Evolutionary Microbiology Group at Wageningen
• Collaborations with Uppsala University (single-cell genomics)
• International networks in archaeal taxonomy