James E. Galagan, PhD

Professor, Boston University College of Engineering

Biography

Dr. Galagan’s research is focused on Systems Biology of microbial organisms, specficially Mycobacterium tuberculosis – the causative agent of tuberculosis – and the fungus Neurospora crassa. The Galagan Lab is an interdisciplinary group that combines computational biology, genomics, and experimental lab work. Specific interests and projects include:

• Using a genomics, computational modeling, and experimental systems-identification techniques to reconstruct the gene regulatory network of M. tuberculosis.
• Developing and experimentally validating computational models of microbial metabolism for M. tuberculosis and N. crassa.
• Using high-throughput sequencing and comparative sequence analysis to study the functional evolution of M. tuberculosis.
• Developing computational methods for genomic data analysis (including gene prediction, gene expression analysis, and polymorphism discovery)
• Developing experimental methods for microbial systems identification and analysis, drawing on electrical and mechanical systems identification methods

Publications

  • Published 5/7/2025

    Lally P, Gómez-Romero L, Tierrafría VH, Aquino P, Rioualen C, Zhang X, Kim S, Baniulyte G, Plitnick J, Smith C, Babu M, Collado-Vides J, Wade JT, Galagan JE. Predictive biophysical neural network modeling of a compendium of in vivo transcription factor DNA binding profiles for Escherichia coli. Nat Commun. 2025 May 07; 16(1):4255. PMID: 40335485.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 9/21/2024

    Lally P, Tierrafría VH, Gómez-Romero L, Stringer A, Collado-Vides J, Wade JT, Galagan JE. A Cryptic Prophage Transcription Factor Drives Phenotypic Changes via Host Gene Regulation. bioRxiv. 2024 Sep 21. PMID: 39345586.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 5/24/2024

    Lally P, Gómez-Romero L, Tierrafría VH, Aquino P, Rioualen C, Zhang X, Kim S, Baniulyte G, Plitnick J, Smith C, Babu M, Collado-Vides J, Wade JT, Galagan JE. Predictive Biophysical Neural Network Modeling of a Compendium of in vivo Transcription Factor DNA Binding Profiles for Escherichia coli. bioRxiv. 2024 May 24. PMID: 38826350.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/18/2024

    Sankar K, Kuzmanovic U, Schaus SE, Galagan JE, Grinstaff MW. Strategy, Design, and Fabrication of Electrochemical Biosensors: A Tutorial. ACS Sens. 2024 May 24; 9(5):2254-2274. PMID: 38636962.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/25/2023

    Grazon C, Garanger E, Lalanne P, Ibarboure E, Galagan JE, Grinstaff MW, Lecommandoux S. Transcription-Factor-Induced Aggregation of Biomimetic Oligonucleotide-b-Protein Micelles. Biomacromolecules. 2023 Nov 13; 24(11):5027-5034. PMID: 37877162.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 96 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Other Positions

  • Associate Professor, Virology, Immunology & Microbiology
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
  • Faculty, National Emerging Infectious Disease Lab
    Boston University
  • Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
    Boston University
  • Associate Director of Systems Biology, National Emerging Infectious Disease Lab
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
  • Associate Director of Microbial Genome Analysis
    Broad Institute
  • Member, Genome Science Institute
    Boston University

Websites

Education

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD
  • University of California, Davis, BS

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