Patrick T. Dolan, Ph.D.

The Quantitative Virology and Evolution Unit focuses on understanding the dynamic and heterogenous processes of RNA virus infection and evolution. Using experimental tools, including high-resolution sequencing and live-cell microscopy, along with computational phylogenetic and bioinformatic tools, we characterize virus evolution and host-virus interactions across spatial and temporal scales. Projects in the lab include single-cell and single-genome sequencing of within-host virus evolution and host responses, phylogenetic reconstruction and evolutionary biochemistry in emerging RNA viruses, and design and analysis of mutational and functional genetic screens.

Patrick T. Dolan, Ph.D., is an experimental virologist and computational biologist whose work focuses primarily on the evolution and host-virus interactions of positive-sense RNA viruses. Patrick earned his B.S. degree in microbiology and molecular genetics from Michigan State University, where he worked in the laboratory of professor Yong-Hui Zheng on the antiviral function of APOBEC3 cytidine deaminases in HIV-1. Patrick earned his Ph.D. in biological sciences in 2014 from Purdue University, where he studied the form and function of the hepatitis C virus-host protein interaction network under the supervision of professor Douglas J. LaCount and co-advisor professor Michael Gribskov. Patrick then pursued postdoctoral studies at Stanford University and University of California, San Francisco, in the laboratories of professors Raul Andino and Judith Frydman where he developed methods to understand the evolutionary dynamics of enteroviruses and flaviviruses in alternative host environments. In the fall of 2021, Patrick began as unit chief of the Quantitative Virology and Evolution Unit at NIAID in Bethesda, MD, where he will continue to study the forces that shape the long- and short-term evolution of RNA virus populations.