Dan earned a B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Cornell University in 2000, and followed that with several years of sequencing work at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR, now part of J. Craig Venter Institute). He then re-routed slightly and earned a Master's in Science Education from the University of Missouri and taught high school Biology, Earth Science, and Oceanography for 3 years. Thereafter, he returned to his hometown and found a balance between academia and education at the University of Pittsburgh with Graham Hatfull's PHIRE (Phage Hunters Integrating Research and Education) program, and with HHMI's SEA-PHAGES (Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science) program.
Dan does sequencing and finishing of bacteriophage genomes, using a variety of platforms, including Sanger, 454, Illumina, and Nanopore sequencing, including our lab's own Illumina NextSeq 1000 and Nanopore MinION sequencers.
He also created and maintains the websites PhagesDB.org to collect and share the data generated by phage hunters around the world, as well as the program website seaphages.org for HHMI's SEA-PHAGES course-based undergraduate research program.