Vivek Mutalik

Biochemist Staff Scientist

Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology

Comparative and Functional Genomics

Secondary Affiliation: Biological Systems and Engineering

BioEngineering & BioMedical Sciences
Biodesign

Building: Aquatic Park Station 717 Potter St , Room 180B
Mail Stop: 977-180B
VKMutalik@lbl.gov
https://sites.google.com/lbl.gov/mutaliklab

Programs & Initiatives

BRaVE Phage Foundry
ENIGMA SFA

Research Interests

Please see our Lab’s website for more details on our research

We are passionate about developing high-throughput tools and technologies study molecular mechanisms of microbial interactions. Currently, focused on studying bacteria-phage interactions, and the diverse biotic and abiotic factors that influence those interactions.

We are the lead lab heading the DOE BRaVE funded Phage Foundry project for systematic characterization of phages and phage-tail like bacteriocins as a powerful countermeasure to tackle the antimicrobial resistance pandemic.

Selected Publications

LinkedIn Profile
ResearchGate Profile

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Barcoding Bacteriophages

January 18, 2024

A team led by Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology (EGSB) staff scientist Vivek Mutalik demonstrated for the first time that they can, on a genome-wide scale, identify phage genes that are essential (or not) to infecting bacteria, and then replace non-essential DNA with distinctive barcode tags. These barcodes could enable investigators and clinicians to quickly identify and track different phages in diverse settings, similar to how product barcodes are used in supermarkets. Brought to scale, the method stands to unlock potent biotechnology applications relevant to agriculture, the environment, human health, and more.

Biosciences Researchers Launching Biopreparedness Projects

September 18, 2023

Two scientists in the Area, Greg Hura and Vivek Mutalik, are heading up research projects that are part of the Department of Energy’s Biopreparedness Research Virtual Environment (BRaVE) initiative. Yasuo Yoshikuni, a scientist at the Joint Genome Institute, is part of a third project that is being led by Brookhaven National Laboratory. These projects will leverage bioimaging expertise to develop better therapies and vaccines for viruses, develop a high-throughput platform to rapidly design countermeasures to drug-resistant pathogens, and unlock the molecular basis of plant-pathogen interactions to create resilient bioenergy crops.

Dub-seq Used to Screen Phage Proteins for Antibiotic Properties

March 14, 2023

As conventional antibiotics continue to lose effectiveness against evolving pathogens, scientists are keen to employ the bacteria-killing techniques perfected by bacteriophages (phages), the viruses that infect bacteria. One major challenge is the difficulty of studying individual phage proteins and determining precisely how the virus wields these tools to kill their host bacteria. A team of researchers from Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley, and Texas A&M University worked together on a high-throughput genetic screen to identify which part of the bacteria the phages were targeting.

Research Interests

About Biosciences

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