麻豆传媒

Martin Embley is Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Molecular Biology in the Biosciences Institute at the Medical School, 麻豆传媒

Areas of expertise

• The investigation of early eukaryotic evolution using genomics, cell and molecular biology
• Computational evolution, particularly the use of phylogenetics to explore gene and genomic origins
• Parasites and their minimal mitochondria (mitosomes and hydrogenosomes) as models for understanding the essential functions of mitochondria for all eukaryotes

Awards and roles

• Awarded Darwin Medal of the Royal Society (2022)
• Elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS 2019)
• Vice Chair, Marie Sklodowska-Curie International Training Networks, Environment Panel (2018 - to date)
• Elected to the European Academy for Microbiology (2016)
• Vice Chancellor’s Award for Academic Distinction (2016)
• Member of Editorial Board, Genome Biology and Evolution (2011 - to date)
• Vice Chair, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships, Environment Panel (2011 - 2018)
• Elected Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci 2011)
• ERC Advanced Investigator Award (2011-2017)
• Wellcome Trust Programme Grant (2010-2016)
• Elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (2009)
• Elected Fellow of the American Academy for Microbiology (2008)
• Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2006-2011)
• Scientific Associate, Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum (2004 to date)
• Associate Editor, Molecular Biology and Evolution (2002-2011)
• Member of Editorial Board, Environmental Microbiology (2000-2006)
• Member of the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research (1996-2007)
• Visiting Professor to the Universities of Aberdeen, Essex, Kings College, Liverpool and 麻豆传媒 (1996-2004)
• Senior Principal Scientific Officer IMP (Individual Merit Promotion), the Natural History Museum (2001-2004)
• Principal Scientific Officer, Dept. Zoology, the Natural History Museum (1992-2001)
• Senior Scientific Officer, Dept. Zoology, the Natural History Museum, London (1991-1992)
• Principal Lecturer in Microbiology, University of East London (1988-1991)
• Lecturer in Microbiology, University of East London (1983-1988)
• PhD in Microbiology, 麻豆传媒 (1979-1983)

Google scholar:

Research Interests

We are interested in the early evolution of eukaryotic cells, their genomes and their organelles related to mitochondria (hydrogenosomes and mitosomes).  We use anaerobic and parasitic eukaryotes including Giardia, Trichomonas and particularly Microsporidia as our models.  We also investigate how reductive evolution has affected the biology of obligate intracellular Microsporidia parasites that infect most animal groups including humans.  Our work has the following broad themes:

Genomics

We use whole genome data to investigate the contrasting roles of vertical and horizontal inheritance, including genes of endosymbiotic origins, in shaping eukaryotic genomes. We also study the effects of reductive evolution on parasite genomes.

Phylogenetics

We are developing better methods, based upon likelihood and Bayesian approaches, for phylogenetic analysis of molecular data. Our aim is to improve the reconstruction of phylogenetic trees relevant to understanding the early evolution of eukaryotes.

Cell Biology

We have a long term interest in the discovery and characterisation of reduced organelles (hydrogenosomes, mitosomes) related to mitochondria.  Our investigations are aimed at identifying the essential functions of mitochondria for eukaryotes.  In these studies we have often used the tiny minimal mitochondria (mitosome) of Microsporidia - which we discovered - as a model system.  More recently we have become interested in how Microsporidia use transport proteins to steal resources from infected host cells.

Two reviews that give an overview of our interests in eukaryotic evolution:

Williams, TA, Foster, PG, Cox, CJ and Embley, TM. (2013).  An archaeal origin of eukaryotes supports only two primary domains of life.  Nature 504: 231-236.

Embley, TM and Martin W. (2006). Eukaryotic evolution, changes and challenges.  Nature 440: 623-630.

Two recent papers that give an insight into our work on Microsporidia molecular cell biology:

Dean, P, Sendra, KM, Williams, TA, Watson , AK,  Major, P, Nakjang, S, Kozhevnikova, E, Goldberg, AV, Kunji, ERS, Hirt, RP and Embley, TM. (2018).  Transporter gene acquisition and innovation in the evolution of Microsporidia intracellular parasites. Nature Communications 9: 1709.  (there is also a commentary on this paper by Lukes and Husnik in Current Biology: Microsporidia: A single horizontal gene transfer drives a great leap forwards.  doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.05.031).

Freibert, SA, Goldberg, AV, Hacker, C, Molik, S, Dean, P, Williams, TA, Nakjang, S, Long, S, Sendra, K, Heinz, E, Hirt, RP, Lucocq, JM, Embley, TM and Lill R. (2017).  Evolutionary conservation and in vitro reconstitution of microsporidian iron-sulphur cluster biosynthesis.  Nature comunications 8: 13932.

Undergraduate Teaching

I no longer lead undergraduate modules as I retired in October 2022.  I still give occasional lectures on evolution on the modules of other colleagues.

International workshops

We have run an EMBO-funded workshop on Computational Molecular Evolution since 1998. The teaching material including all of the slides and practicals for the 2018 EMBO course (in Faro, Portugal) can be downloaded using the link below (copy it into your browser it will not work from here).

EMBO 2017 Workshop on Computational Molecular Evolution, Teaching Materials:

http://att.ccmar.ualg.pt/embo2018/.

• Articles

  • Williams TA, Cox CJ, Foster PG, Szollosi GJ, Embley TM. . Nature Ecology & Evolution 2020, 4, 138-147.
  • Lewis WH, Lind AE, Sendra KM, Onsbring H, Williams TA, Esteban GF, Hirt RP, Ettema TJG, Embley TM. . Molecular Biology and Evolution 2020, 37(2), 524-539.
  • Major P, Sendra K, Dean P, Williams TA, Watson AK, Thwaites DT, Embley TM, Hirt RP. . eLife 2019, 8, e47037.
  • Dean P, Sendra KM, Williams TA, Watson AK, Major P, Nakjang S, Kozhevnikova E, Goldberg AV, Kunji ERS, Hirt RP, Embley TM. . Nature Communications 2018, 9, 1709.
  • Lind AE, Lewis WH, Spang A, Guy L, Embley TM, Ettema TJG. . ISME Journal 2018, 12(11), 2655-2667.
  • Williams TA, Szöllősi GJ, Spang A, Foster PG, Heaps SE, Boussau B, Ettema TJG, Embley TM. . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2017, 114(23), E4602-E4611.
  • Freibert SA, Goldberg AV, Hacker C, Molik S, Dean P, Williams TA, Nakjang S, Long SJ, Sendra K, Bill E, Heinz E, Hirt RP, Lucocq JM, Embley TM, Lill R. . Nature Communcations 2017, 8, 13932.
  • Embley TM, Williams TA. . Microbiology Today 2016, 43(2), 70-73.
  • Domman D, Horn M, Embley TM, Williams TA. . Nature Communications 2015, 6, 6421.
  • Williams TA, Heaps SE, Cherlin S, Nye TMW, Boys RJ, Embley TM. . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2015, 370(1678), 20140336.
  • Gubry-Rangin C, Kratsch C, Williams TA, McHardy AC, Embley TM, Prosser JI, Macqueen DJ. . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2015, 112(30), 9370-9375.
  • Heinz E, Hacker C, Dean P, Mifsud J, Goldberg AV, Williams TA, Nakjang S, Gregory A, Hirt RP, Lucocq JM, Kunji ER, Embley TM. . PLoS Pathogens 2014, 10(12), e1004547.
  • Williams TA, Embley TM. . Genome Biology and Evolution 2014, 6(3), 474-481.
  • Nakjang S, Williams TA, Heinz E, Watson AK, Foster PG, Sendra KM, Heaps SE, Hirt RP, Embley T. . Genome Biology and Evolution 2013, 5(12), 2285-2303.
  • Alsmark C, Foster PG, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Nakjang S, Embley TM, Hirt RP. . Genome Biology 2013, 14(2), R19.
  • Heinz E, Williams TA, Nakjnag S, Noël CJ, Swan DC, Goldberg AV, Harris SR, Weinmaier T, Markert S, Becher D, Bernhardt J, Dagan T, Hacker C, Lucocq JM, Schweder T, Rattei T, Hall N, Hirt RP, Embley TM. . PLoS Pathogens 2012, 8(10), e1002979.
  • Williams TA, Foster PG, Nye TMW, Cox CJ, Embley TM. . Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2012, 279(1749), 4870-4879.
  • Williams TA, Embley TM, Heinz E. . PLoS One 2011, 6(6), e21080.
  • Foster PG, Cox CJ, Embley TM. . Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2009, 364(1527), 2197-2207.
  • Cox CJ, Foster PG, Hirt RP, Harris SR, Embley TM. . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2008, 105(51), 20356-20361.
  • Smid O, Matuskova A, Harris SR, Kucera T, Novotny M, Horvathova L, Hrdy I, Kutejova E, Hirt RP, Embley TM, Janata J, Tachezy J. . PLoS Pathogens 2008, 4(12), e1000243.
  • Goldberg AV, Molik S, Tsaousis AD, Neumann K, Kuhnke G, Delbac F, Vivares CP, Hirt RP, Lill R, Embley TM. . Nature 2008, 452(7187), 624-628.
  • Tsaousis AD, Kunji ERS, Goldberg AV, Lucocq JM, Hirt RP, Embley TM. . Nature 2008, 453(7194), 553-556.
  • Carlton JM, Hirt RP, Silva JC, Delcher AL, Schatz M, Zhao Q, Wortman JR, Bidwell SL, Alsmark UCM, Besteiro S, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Noel CJ, Dacks JB, Foster PG, Simillion C, Van De Peer Y, Miranda-Saavedra D, Barton GJ, Westrop GD, Muller S, Dessi D, Fiori PL, Ren Q, Paulsen I, Zhang H, Bastida-Corcuera FD, Simoes-Barbosa A, Brown MT, Hayes RD, Mukherjee M, Okumura CY, Schneider R, Smith AJ, Vanacova S, Villalvazo M, Haas BJ, Pertea M, Feldblyum TV, Utterback TR, Shu C-L, Osoegawa K, De Jong PJ, Hrdy I, Horvathova L, Zubacova Z, Dolezal P, Malik S-B, Logsdon Jr JM, Henze K, Gupta A, Wang CC, Dunne RL, Upcroft JA, Upcroft P, White O, Salzberg SL, Tang P, Chiu C-H, Lee Y-S, Embley TM, Coombs GH, Mottram JC, Tachezy J, Fraser-Liggett CM, Johnson PJ. . Science 2007, 315(5809), 207-212.
  • Embley TM. . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 2006, 361(1470), 1055-1067.
  • Loftus B, Anderson I, Davies R, Alsmark UCM, Samuelson J, Amedeo P, Roncaglia P, Berriman M, Hirt RP, Mann BJ, Nozaki T, Suh B, Pop M, Duchene M, Ackers J, Tannich E, Leippe M, Hofer M, Bruchhaus I, Willhoeft U, Bhattacharya A, Chillingworth T, Churcher C, Hance Z, Harris B, Harris D, Jagels K, Moule S, Mungall K, Ormond D, Squares R, Whitehead S, Quail MA, Rabbinowitsch E, Norbertczak H, Price C, Wang Z, Guillen N, Gilchrist C, Stroup SE, Bhattacharya S, Lohia A, Foster PG, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Weber C, Singh U, Mukherjee C, El-Sayed NM, Petri Jr WA, Clark CG, Embley TM, Barrell B, Fraser CM, Hall N. . Nature 2005, 433(7028), 865-868.
  • Berriman M, Ghedin E, Hertz-Fowler C, Blandin G, Renauld H, Bartholomeu DC, Lennard NJ, Caler E, Hamlin NE, Haas B, Bohme U, Hannick L, Aslett MA, Shallom J, Marcello L, Hou L, Wickstead B, Alsmark UCM, Arrowsmith C, Atkin RJ, Barron AJ, Bringaud F, Brooks K, Carrington M, Cherevach I, Chillingworth T-J, Churcher C, Clark LN, Corton CH, Cronin A, Davies RM, Doggett J, Djikeng A, Feldblyum T, Field MC, Fraser A, Goodhead I, Hance Z, Harper D, Harris BR, Hauser H, Hostetler J, Ivens A, Jagels K, Johnson D, Johnson J, Jones K, Kerhornou AX, Koo H, Larke N, Landfear S, Larkin C, Leech V, Line A, Lord A, MacLeod A, Mooney PJ, Moule S, Martin DMA, Morgan GW, Mungall K, Norbertczak H, Ormond D, Pai G, Peacock CS, Peterson J, Quail MA, Rabbinowitsch E, Rajandream M-A, Reitter C, Salzberg SL, Sanders M, Schobel S, Sharp S, Simmonds M, Simpson AJ, Tallon L, Turner CMR, Tait A, Tivey AR, Van Aken S, Walker D, Wanless D, Wang S, White B, White O, Whitehead S, Woodward J, Wortman J, Adams MD, Embley TM, Gull K, Ullu E, Barry JD, Fairlamb AH, Opperdoes F, Barrell BG, Donelson JE, Hall N, Fraser CM, Melville SE, El-Sayed NM. . Science 2005, 309(5733), 416-422.
  • El-Sayed NM, Myler PJ, Blandin G, Berriman M, Crabtree J, Aggarwal G, Caler E, Renauld H, Worthey EA, Hertz-Fowler C, Ghedin E, Peacock C, Bartholomeu DC, Haas BJ, Tran A-N, Wortman JR, Alsmark UCM, Angiuoli S, Anupama A, Badger J, Bringaud F, Cadag E, Carlton JM, Cerqueira GC, Creasy T, Delcher AL, Djikeng A, Embley TM, Hauser C, Ivens AC, Kummerfeld SK, Pereira-Leal JB, Nilsson D, Peterson J, Salzberg SL, Shallom J, Silva JC, Sundaram J, Westenberger S, White O, Melville SE, Donelson JE, Andersson B, Stuart KD, Hall N. . Science 2005, 309(5733), 404-435.
  • Chan KW, Slotboom D-J, Cox S, Embley TM, Fabre O, Van Der Giezen M, Harding M, Horner DS, Kunji ERS, Leon-Avila G, Tovar J. . Current Biology 2005, 15(8), 737-742.
  • Hrdy I, Hirt RP, Dolezal P, Bardonova L, Foster PG, Tachezy J, Embley TM. . Nature 2004, 432(7017), 618-622.
  • van der Giezen M, Slotboom DJ, Horner DS, Dyal PL, Harding M, Xue GP, Embley TM, Kunji ER. . The EMBO Journal 2002, 21(4), 572-579.
  • Williams BA, Hirt RP, Lucocq JM, Embley TM. . Nature 2002, 418(6900), 865-869.
  • Hirt RP, Logsdon JM, Healy B, Dorey MW, Doolittle WF, Embley TM. . Proceedings Of the National Academy Of Sciences Of the United States Of America 1999, 96(2), 580-585.

• Editorials

  • Embley TM, Williams TA. . Nature 2015, 521(7551), 169-170.
  • Williams TA, Embley TM. . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Biological Sciences 2015, 370(1678).

• Note

  • Martin W, Embley TM. . Nature 2004, 431(7005), 134-137.

• Reviews

  • Dean P, Hirt RP, Embley TM. . PLoS Pathogens 2016, 12(11), e1005870.
  • Williams TA, Foster PG, Cox CJ, Embley TM. . Nature 2013, 504, 231-236.
  • Embley TM, Martin W. . Nature 2006, 440(7084), 623-630.