David Coil is a Project Scientist responsible for supervising undergraduate research projects in microbiology, microbial ecology, and genomics in the Eisen Lab. Also managing research projects/collaborations in the lab including microbial sampling, metagenomics, and bacterial genome assembly. And finally, performing public outreach in microbiology through the microBEnet project, which is focused on communication in the context of studies of microbiology of the built environment (including sending bacteria into space).  David is the creator of “Gut Check: The Microbiome Game” which is freely available to print here, or can be purchased here.

David received his PhD in 2005 from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/University of Washington, working on retroviruses.  Since then he has lectured at the UW, done a post-doc in Belgium working on Legionella, and helps direct a non-profit in Alaska called Ground Truth Trekking.