Research Interests and Accomplishments

Dr. Peterson received his undergraduate education at Rutgers University from 1982-1986. Dr. Peterson then pursued a Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Clyde Hutchison at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he initiated a characterization of the minimal genome of Mycoplasma genitalium. Dr. Peterson did post-doctoral studies at Glaxo-Wellcome Inc from 1992-1996. Dr. Peterson joined the faculty in 1996 where he has pursued a wide variety of functional and comparative genomics studies.

Dr. Peterson was the co-first author on the global transposon mutagenesis of the M. genitalium genome to define the minimal genetic requirements for life. Dr. Peterson has been using DNA microarrays to conduct gene expression and comparative genomic hybridization studies on a number of bacterial species. More recently, Dr. Peterson has developed novel applications using DNA microarrays to enhance the efficiency of performing functional characterization of microbial genomes. Since 2001, Dr. Peterson has been the Scientific Director of the NIAID's Pathogen Functional Genomics Resource Center (PFGRC). As the scientific leader of the PFGRC, Dr. Peterson has developed additional areas of expertise in functional genomics, particularly focused on high throughput gene cloning and protein expression and proteomics.

Dr. Peterson is interested in the evolution of pathogenic genomes. More recently, Dr. Peterson has developed a number of methods and strategies to enable deeper characterization of metagenomes and has interest in both human and environmental metagenomics. In 2008, Dr. Peterson was promoted to the position of Director of Functional Genomics Research and Development.

Publications