Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President

Faculty Spotlight

Mya Breitbart

College of Marine Sciences, Marine Sciences Department

Undergraduate Degree

Biology, Florida Institute of Technology

Doctoral Degree

Ph.D., Cellular and Molecular Biology, 2006,San Diego State University / University of California San Diego

Selected Published Works

Five most recent published works:

• Angly, FE, B Felts, M Breitbart, P Salamon, RA Edwards, C Carlson, AM Chan, M Haynes, S Kelley, H Liu, J Mahaffy, JE Mueller, J Nulton, R Olson, R Parsons, S Rayhawk, CA Suttle, F Rohwer (2006). The marine viromes of four oceanic regions. 4:e368.
• Breitbart, M, and F Rohwer (2005) Method for discovering novel DNA viruses in blood using viral particle selection and shotgun sequencing. Biotechniques. 39: 729-736.
• Breitbart, M, R Bhagooli, S Griffin, I Johnston, F Rohwer (2005) Microbial communities associated with skeletal tumors on Porites compressa. FEMS Microbiology Letters. 243: 431-436.
• Zhang, T, M Breitbart, WH Lee, J-Q Run, CL Wei, SWL Soh, ML Hibberd, E Liu, F Rohwer, Y Ruan (2006) RNA viral community in human feces: Prevalence of plant pathogenic viruses. PLoS Biology. 4: e3.
• Breitbart, M, JH Miyake, F Rohwer (2004) Global distribution of nearly identical phage-encoded DNA sequences. FEMS Microbiology Letters. 236 (2). 245-252.

Area of Specialization / Research

My research area is environmental microbiology and metagenomics. My laboratory uses genomics to determine the diversity of viruses and bacteria in a variety of environments, ranging from coral reefs to reclaimed water.

Current Course Offerings

I teach graduate-level courses in the application of molecular biology and genomics to marine science research. These courses include “Marine Molecular Methods” and “Metagenomic Bioinformatics”.

How and when did you first become interested in your field of study?

I have been interested in the marine environment since I was a child, but my interest in microbiology didn’t start until I was an undergraduate. Environmental microbiology is a fascinating field to me because there is so much still waiting to be discovered. In every milliliter of seawater, there are a million bacteria and 10 million viruses, yet we are only just beginning to understand their diversity, biogeography, and ecological roles.

What made you decide to pursue a career in higher education?

When I was a student, I had some incredible teachers and mentors who really made a difference in my career choice. I wanted to have this impact on students, which is primarily why I chose a career in higher education. To me, this is the perfect job – to be able to perform cutting-edge research and mentor the next generation of scientists.

Why did you choose to be a part of the academic community at USF?

The College of Marine Science has an outstanding research and graduate training program. I love being part of a Marine Science department, where there are lots of opportunities for interdisciplinary interactions with biologists, chemists, geologists, and physical oceanographers.

What do you enjoy about teaching the students of USF?

The students at USF are amazingly enthusiastic, which makes them fun to teach and work with!

What do you like about the university community?

The university environment is very adventurous, always open to new (and sometimes crazy) ideas. Entertaining these ideas is how significant breakthroughs are accomplished in science, and the university setting allows the flexibility to make this happen.