Trevor Charles carries out research in bacterial genetics and is an expert on analyzing genetic material recovered directly from environmental samples, also known as functional metagenomics. In 2015, Prof. Charles was honoured with an Ontario Genomics Institute SPARK Award for an innovative project that uses waste methane to create renewable bioplastics. Plant-microbe interactions Symbiotic nitrogen fixation Functional metagenomics Bacterial genome engineering Synthetic biology, bioplastics and bioproducts 1991 PhD Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario 1985 BSc Microbiology, University of British Columbia

Professor Charles is a microbiologist with expertise in bacterial molecular genetics. His research group studies the mechanisms of gene regulatory circuits that control the interactions of Rhizobiales bacteria such as Sinorhizobium meliloti with their eukaryal hosts. The group also develops methods for functional metagenomics using alternate surrogate hosts, and employs these methods to isolate novel genes with interesting functions from microbial community genomic libraries. Current research emphasis is on functional metagenomics, bioplastics and bacterial genome engineering.