Six years after its founding, Yale’s West Campus has filled its sixth and last remaining directorship with the naming of Christine Jacobs-Wagner as director of the Microbial Diversity Institute.

The Microbial Diversity Institute focuses on understanding the origin and nature of microbes, and their effects on health and the environment. Research at the Institute is characterized by a combination of genome-level analysis and experimental approaches towards the study of these organisms.

Jacobs-Wagner, a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and of microbial genesis who received her doctorate from Belgium’s University of Liege, has been an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2008. Her research covers the molecular mechanisms underlying bacterial multiplication and organization in time in space. In keeping with the interdisciplinary research that distinguishes West Campus, the Jacobs-Wagner lab draws upon genetics, bioinformatics, biochemistry and biophysics to craft an integrative approach to its studies.

“Microbes are the basis for so much exciting research already happening at West Campus, and I am so excited about the interactions and natural connections between MDI and the other institutes at West Campus,” Jacobs-Wagner said.

In addition to her research and teaching at Yale, Jacobs has been the director of the National Institutes of Health-supported Predoctoral Training Grant Program in Genetics since 2011.