Michael Tassia, Ph.D.

McCoy Lab, Johns Hopkins University

About Me

Fascinated by all things strange

It all began with a formal introduction to the dynamic ecoystem of marine invertebrates that occupy the Salish Sea in 2014. Since then, my scientific interests have focussed on applying the principles of molecular evolution, phylogenetics, and the coupling of experimental biology with bioinformatics to address questions about how genomes have evolved across the animal Kingdom.

Research Interests

The wacky & wonderful world of animal evolution

  • Genome Evolution

    The relationships among genomes of a single species or across deep evolutionary timescales

  • Biodiversity

    A planet filled to the brim with strange organisms that compete through evolutionary innovations

  • image alt text

    Immunity Evolution

    An organism’s defense against microscopic invaders hell-bent on exploiting their host’s biological features

  • Hemichordates

    A face only a mother could love; a group of overlooked and enigmantic marine invertebrates worthy of their own conference

Peer-Reviewed Publications

For other authorships, see CV below

Tassia MG, David KT, Townsend JP, & Halanych KM (2021) TIAMMAt: Leveraging biodiversity to revise protein domain models, evidence from innate immunity. Molecular Biology and Evolution 38(12), 5806-5818.

Townsend JP, Tassia MG, Damian-Serrano A, Whelan NV, Halanych KM, & Sweeney AM (2020) A mesopelagic ctenophore representing a new family, with notes on family-level taxonomy in Ctenophora: Vampyroctena delmarvensis gen. nov. sp. nov. (Vampyroctenidae, fam. nov.). Marine Biodiversity 50(34)

Li Y, Tassia MG, Waits DS, Bogantes VE, David KT, & Halanych KM (2019) Genomic adaptations to chemosymbiosis in the deep-sea seep-dwelling tubeworm Lamellibrachia luymesi. BMC Biology 17(91).

Li Y, Kocot KM, Tassia MG, Cannon JT, Bernt M, & Halanych KM (2019) Mitogenomics reveals a novel genetic code in Hemichordata. Genome Biology and Evolution 11(1), 29-40.

Tassia MG, Whelan NV, & Halanych KM (2017) Toll-like receptor pathway evolution in deuterostomes. PNAS 114(27), 7055-7060.

Tassia MG, Cannon JT, Konikoff CE, Shenkar N, Halanych KM, & Swalla BJ (2016) The global diversity of Hemichordata. PLoS ONE

Curriculum Vitae

CV can be downloaded here