Thomas Bataillon’s research sits at the intersection of evolutionary genetics and bioinformatics, with a focus on understanding how natural selection operates at the molecular level and influences genetic variation within populations. He develops and applies statistical models to large genetic datasets to predict the effects of new mutations on fitness and uncover the evolutionary processes driving adaptation to changing environments.

Bataillon aims to deepen our understanding of the genetic basis of adaptation and the role of rare, beneficial mutations. In recent years, his group has concentrated on developing theories and statistical methods to characterize mutations, their fitness effects, and the factors that make these effects predictable. Their work combines fitness landscape models with population genetics theory and is often conducted in collaboration with empirical research groups, analyzing large datasets from both experimental evolution and population genomics.

Thomas Bataillon – brief biography

Thomas Bataillon holds a Ph.D. in biology from Genetics Agro Paris Tech, France, where his research focused on the impact of deleterious mutations on adaptation and the maintenance of genetic diversity in natural populations. He joined the Bioinformatics Research Centre (BiRC) as an associate professor in 2006 and his research is focused on evolutionary genetics and bioinformatics.

Thomas Bataillon’s early work explored how mutation, genetic drift, and natural selection interact to shape the genetic structure of populations. This foundational research paved the way for his later studies, which combine evolutionary theory with statistical models to theorize, reconstruct, and infer fitness landscapes from diverse genetic and genomic data, enhancing our understanding of how novel mutations affect the fitness and adaptation of organisms.

Throughout his career, Thomas Bataillon has secured substantial research funding, including prestigious grants from the European Research Council (ERC) as the principal investigator (Consolidator Grant ADAPT) and collaborator (Advanced Grant EvolinHI). These grants have supported his work in evolutionary genomics and the development of new computational methods for analyzing DNA sequence data.

In addition to his research, Thomas Bataillon is a dedicated educator, teaching courses in bioinformatics, data science, and evolutionary genetics at both undergraduate and graduate levels at Aarhus University (e.g., Introduction to Data Science, Data Science in Bioinformatics, Statistical Machine Learning in Bioinformatics). He is also an active member of the scientific community, publishing extensively in top-tier journals and collaborating with researchers worldwide.

Mere information

Thomas Bataillon
Institut for Molekylærbiologi og Genetik
Aarhus Universitet
tbata@birc.au.dk