Michael Lynch is a professor in the School of Life Sciences of the Arizona State University and director of the Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, where he also heads an NSF-funded Biological Integration Institute focused on the cellular mechanisms of evolution.

Research

His research has long focused on the genetic mechanisms of evolution, particularly at the genomic and cellular levels,  with special attention being given to the roles of mutation, random genetic drift, and recombination. This work relies on the integration of theory development and computational analysis with empirical work on several model systems, including the microcrustacean Daphnia, the ciliate Paramecium, and numerous microbial species. Current research foci include: the evolution of replication, transcription, and translation error rates; the consequences of genome duplication; the 5000 Daphnia genomes project; global patterns of genomic and cellular diversity in ciliates and volvocales; and the mechanisms driving biology’s scaling relationships.

All of this work fits the overarching theme of understanding  the primary forces of evolution to empower all areas of the life sciences and solve key practical and urgent societal issues such as our understanding of mutation and disease.

Grants and awards

Recent awards include the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal from the Genetics Society of America and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. He is the author of four books: Genetics and Analysis of Quantitative Traits (with Bruce Walsh, 1998), The Origins of Genome Complexity (2007), Evolution and Selection of Quantitative Traits (with Bruce Walsh, 2018), and Evolutionary Cell Biology: the Origins of Cellular Architecture (2024).

Selected bibliography

• Kucukyildirim, Sibel, Hongan Long, Way Sung, Samuel F. Miller, Thomas G. Doak, and Michael Lynch. “The Rate and Spectrum of Spontaneous Mutations in Mycobacterium Smegmatis, a Bacterium Naturally Devoid of the Postreplicative Mismatch Repair Pathway.” G3 (Bethesda, Md.) 6 (7): 2157–63.
• Long, Hongan, Megan G. Behringer, Emily Williams, Ronald Te, and Michael Lynch. “Similar Mutation Rates but Highly Diverse Mutation Spectra in Ascomycete and Basidiomycete Yeasts.” Genome Biology and Evolution 8 (12): 3815–21.
• Moger-Reischer, R. Z., J. I. Glass, K. S. Wise, L. Sun, D. M. C. Bittencourt, B. K. Lehmkuhl, D. R. Schoolmaster Jr, M. Lynch, and J. T. Lennon. “Evolution of a Minimal Cell.” Nature 620 (7972): 122–27.
• Sung, Way, Matthew S. Ackerman, Marcus M. Dillon, Thomas G. Platt, Clay Fuqua, Vaughn S. Cooper, and Michael Lynch. “Evolution of the Insertion-Deletion Mutation Rate across the Tree of Life.” G3 (Bethesda, Md.) 6 (8): 2583–91.