Mostafa Elshahed
Regents Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
2023
Dr. Elshahed is a professor in the department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at OSU. He received his PhD from the University of Oklahoma in 2001 and conducted post-doctoral research studies, also at the University of Oklahoma, between 2001-2006. He joined OSU as a tenure track assistant professor in 2007. Dr. Elshahed is a microbial ecologist, researching anaerobic environments and microorganisms that thrive in the absence of oxygen. Specifically, Dr. Elshahed studies the diversity, ecology, evolution, and genomics of the anerobic gut fungi (Neocallimastigomycota), a fungal lineage that lives in the digestive tracts of herbivores. Dr. Elshahed also seeks to characterize microbial community structure and function in a wide range of anaerobic environments such as sulfur springs, oil and natural gas formations, and lake sediments. He is mostly interested on examining the yet-uncultured fraction of microorganisms in these environments, often referred to as the microbial dark matter. Dr. Elshahed employs a plethora of culture-based, culture-independent, genomics and transcriptomics-based approaches to achieve these goals. Dr. Elshahed has published 105 research papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, serves as an Editor or Editorial board member of multiple scientific journals, and maintains active collaborations with many US based and international research groups with similar and complimentary research interests. His research has been continuously funded since joining OSU in 2007 by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), National Institute of Health (NIH), as well as multiple regional, local, and private entities.
