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Jillian F. Banfield

Planetary Science Institute · US
Area of research
Ecology · Molecular Biology
Research interest
Jill Banfield is Professor in the Departments of Earth and Planetary Science and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. She is the Director of the Innovative Genomics Institute Microbiology Program and also has an appointment in the geochemistry group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her primary research interests are in microbial communities, and environmental microbiology, microbial, viral and phage diversity, and evolution. Her research group studies how microorganisms shape, and are shaped by, their natural environments. Her research group primarily uses cultivation-independent approaches such as metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and community proteomics to understand how microbial consortia interact with and are shaped by their environments, with implications for climate change research, agriculture and human health.
h-index
154
citations
95,350
works
924
NIH funding
primary concept
Biology
email

Recent publications

Multi-omics reveals nitrogen dynamics associated with soil microbial blooms during snowmelt.
2026cited by 1position: contributordoi
Troubleshooting common errors in assemblies of long-read metagenomes.
2026cited by 0position: contributordoi
Reduced methane emissions in transgenic rice genotypes are associated with altered rhizosphere microbial hydrogen cycling.
2026cited by 0position: contributordoi
Author Correction: Inference and reconstruction of the heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes.
2026cited by 0position: contributordoi
Viral delivery of an RNA-guided genome editor for transgene-free germline editing in Arabidopsis
Nature Plants 2025cited by 68position: middledoi
Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies
Nature Microbiology 2025cited by 64position: middledoi
Viral delivery of an RNA-guided genome editor for transgene-free germline editing in Arabidopsis.
2025cited by 38position: contributordoi
Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies.
2025cited by 34position: contributordoi
Structure of an archaeal ribosome reveals a divergent active site and hibernation factor.
2025cited by 5position: contributordoi
Circular 23S rRNA within archaeal ribosomes
2025cited by 2position: contributordoi
Overturning circulation structures the microbial functional landscape of the South Pacific
2025cited by 1position: contributordoi
Diversity-driven biochemical survey reveals dimeric structural origin of rubisco
2025cited by 1position: contributordoi
Convergent evolution of viral-like Borg archaeal extrachromosomal elements and giant eukaryotic viruses.
2025cited by 0position: contributordoi
An archaeal genetic code with all TAG codons as pyrrolysine.
2025cited by 0position: contributordoi
Overturning circulation structures the microbial functional seascape of the South Pacific.
2025cited by 0position: contributordoi
Structure and evolution-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases
2025cited by 0position: contributordoi
Engineered orthogonal translation systems from metagenomic libraries expand the genetic code
2025cited by 0position: contributordoi
COBRA improves the completeness and contiguity of viral genomes assembled from metagenomes.
2024cited by 35position: contributordoi
Asgard archaea modulate potential methanogenesis substrates in wetland soil
Nature Communications 2024cited by 27position: lastdoi
CasPEDIA Database: a functional classification system for class 2 CRISPR-Cas enzymes.
2024cited by 25position: contributordoi
A large colonial choanoflagellate from Mono Lake harbors live bacteria
mBio 2024cited by 19position: middledoi
Asgard archaea modulate potential methanogenesis substrates in wetland soil.
2024cited by 17position: contributordoi
Autotrophic biofilms sustained by deeply sourced groundwater host diverse bacteria implicated in sulfur and hydrogen metabolism
Microbiome 2024cited by 16position: lastdoi
Borg extrachromosomal elements of methane-oxidizing archaea have conserved and expressed genetic repertoires.
2024cited by 11position: contributordoi
A large colonial choanoflagellate from Mono Lake harbors live bacteria.
2024cited by 10position: contributordoi
Harnessing Fermentation May Enhance the Performance of Biological Sulfate-Reducing Bioreactors.
2024cited by 5position: contributordoi
Methanotrophic Methanoperedens archaea host diverse and interacting extrachromosomal elements.
2024cited by 3position: contributordoi
Reduced methane emissions in transgenic rice genotypes are associated with altered rhizosphere microbial hydrogen cycling
2024cited by 3position: contributordoi
The active subset of grassland soil microbiomes changes with soil depth, water availability and prominently features predatory bacteria and episymbionts
2024cited by 3position: contributordoi
Structure of an Archaeal Ribosome with a Divergent Active Site
2024cited by 2position: contributordoi

Grants

Biotechnology of thiocyanate degradation: an exploration using meta-omics tools to understand the microbial communities responsible for remediation of mining wastewater
NSF1349278$255,0792015–2019PIRePORTER
Materials World Network: Particle-Mediated Control Over Crystallization: From the Pre-Nucleation Stage to the Final Crystal
NSF1312697$417,0922013–2018PIRePORTER
The mechanism of fumarate photoreduction on zinc sulfide nanoparticles
NSF1324791$399,7302013–2018PIRePORTER
Comprehensive Genomic Analysis of Salt-impacted Microbial Communities in their Environmental Context
NSF0626526$1,920,9112006–2011PIRePORTER
BE/GEN-EN: Analysis of Factors Determining the Ecological Function and Resilience of Microbial Communities
NSF0221768$1,524,7002002–2007PIRePORTER
Microbial Observatories: Collaborative Research: A Cold Microbial Observatory: Collaborative Research in an Alaskan Boreal Forest Soil
NSF0132115$200,9342002–2007PIRePORTER
Collaborative Research: NIRT: Surface Reactivity of Nanocrystalline Oxides and Oxyhydroxides: Implications for Processes in the Environment
NSF0123967$816,8972001–2007PIRePORTER
Biogeochemical Weathering Controls on Soil Formation and Landscape Development
NSF0106054$261,2852001–2005PIRePORTER
LExEN: Life in Acid
NSF9978205$478,8001999–2003PIRePORTER
Crystal Growth and Phase Transformation Kinetics in Nanocrystalline Materials
NSF9814333$249,9981999–2003PIRePORTER
Biogeochemical Weathering of Layer Silicates
NSF9706382$246,6251997–2001PIRePORTER
Chemical and Bacterial Reactions at the Surfaces of Environmentally-Important Metal Sulfide Minerals: Linking Atomic and Field Scales
NSF9521731$324,9401995–1998PIRePORTER
The Role of Surface Properties in the Behavior of Finely-Crystalline Materials
NSF9508171$210,0001995–1999PIRePORTER
Natural and Experimental Weathering of Pyroxenes and Pyroxenoids
NSF9317082$210,9971994–1998PIRePORTER
TEM Studies of Weathering Reactions: The Importance of Mineral Structure, Microstructure and Composition
NSF9117386$120,0001992–1994PIRePORTER
Miscibility, Microstructure, and Magnetic Properties of Ulvoespinel - Magnetite
NSF9207041$115,2661992–1995PIRePORTER

Frequent collaborators

· 119 papers (2019–2026)Jennifer A. Doudna · QB327 papers (2016–2025)Lin-xing Chen · First Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University17 papers (2019–2025) · 15 papers (2019–2026)Brian C. Thomas · University of California, Berkeley14 papers (2012–2019) · 13 papers (2020–2025)Alexander J. Probst · Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence13 papers (2014–2024) · 12 papers (2020–2025)Petar I. Penev · Georgia Institute of Technology12 papers (2022–2025)Spencer Diamond · University of California, San Diego11 papers (2019–2024)Cindy J. Castelle · Milagen (United States)10 papers (2013–2021)Jamie H. D. Cate · University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez10 papers (2020–2025)J. Pett-Ridge · Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory9 papers (2020–2026) · 8 papers (2019–2021)Karthik Anantharaman · Indian Institute of Technology Madras8 papers (2019–2024) · 7 papers (2021–2025)Mary Firestone · Ecosystem (Spain)7 papers (2020–2022) · 7 papers (2020–2022)Karthik Anantharaman · University of Wisconsin–Madison6 papers (2016–2019)Marie C. Schoelmerich · Planetary Science Institute6 papers (2023–2025)