Eunsoo Kim and Aaron Heiss

Post-doctoral Researcher

Dr. Aaron A. Heiss studies eukaryotes, organisms whose cells have nuclei and other internal structures (unlike bacteria). We are eukaryotes, as are most familiar forms of life: all animals, plants, and fungi. But there are many other lineages of eukaryotes, most of which are primarily or exclusively microbial, called "protists". Dr Heiss's research explores the diversity of protists, both investigating the differences between "kingdom-scale" lineages and discovering features in common between them, some of which may have been characteristics of the last common ancestor to all eukaryotes. His primary activities are: (1) Discovery and description of new eukaryotic microbes. (2) Preparation and sequencing of RNA and DNA from particularly interesting organisms, and evolutionary analysis of sequence data, both for the generation of evolutionary trees and for investigation of genetically-determined traits. (3) Computer-based modelling of subcellular anatomy of eukaryotic cells, determined through high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Dr Heiss focuses on organisms that have no known close relatives, which may prove to be the key to resolving questions about the (currently poorly known) relationships among eukaryotes in general.

• Official AMNH page for Aaron Heiss