Draft:Joel Bryan Dacks

• Comment: Clearly meets WP:NPROF as a fellow of the Linnean Society. However, the article is very much lacking in sources. Jishara (please ping upon response) (talk) 12:54, 23 September 2026 (UTC)

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Joel Bryan Dacks FLS
Known for	Evolution of the endomembrane system and eukaryotic membrane-trafficking
Awards	Hutner Prize (2016) Fellow of the Linnean Society (2016) Canada Research Chair (2011–2021)
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Alberta (BSc) University of British Columbia (MSc) Dalhousie University (PhD)
Academic work
Discipline	Evolutionary cell biology, protistology, parasitology
Website	Faculty Directory

Joel Bryan Dacks FLS is a Canadian evolutionary cell biologist and protistologist. He is a Full Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases within the Department of Medicine at the University of Alberta, holding adjunct and visiting appointments at the Institute of Parasitology of the Czech Academy of Sciences and University College London. His research focuses on the molecular evolution of the eukaryotic endomembrane system, membrane-trafficking machinery, and parasite cell biology.

Education

Dacks completed his Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Biochemistry at the University of Alberta in 1995. He obtained a Master of Science in Zoology (Evolutionary Genetics) from the University of British Columbia in 1998, supervised by Rosie Redfield. In 2003, he completed his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Dalhousie University under the supervision of W. Ford Doolittle, with a dissertation on the molecular evolution of the vesicular transport machinery and the Golgi apparatus.

Career and research

Following his doctoral studies, Dacks held research fellowships at the Natural History Museum, London, the University of Calgary, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and the University of Cambridge.

In 2008, he joined the faculty of the University of Alberta as Assistant Professor. He was named a Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Evolutionary Cell Biology in 2011 (renewed through 2021). In 2013, he was promoted to Associate Professor and attained the rank of Full Professor in 2020 within the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine . Since 2019, he has also served as a Research Scientist at the Institute of Parasitology at the Czech Academy of Sciences, and holds an Honorary Professorship at University College London within the Centre for Life's Origins and Evolution.

Dacks' research centers on comparative genomic and phylogenetic analyses to reconstruct the evolutionary history of eukaryotic cellular structures, particularly organelle evolution, membrane trafficking, and the composition of the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA). He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology and has previously served as President of the International Society for Evolutionary Protistology and Treasurer of the International Society of Protistologists.

Awards and honours

• 2011: Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Evolutionary Cell Biology (renewed 2016)
• 2016: Hutner Prize, International Society of Protistologists
• 2016: Elected Fellow of the Linnean Society of London (FLS)
• 2020: Honorary Professor, University College London

Selected publications

• Richards TA, Eme L, Archibald JM, Dacks JB, Wideman JG (2024). "Reconstructing the last common ancestor of all eukaryotes". PLOS Biology. 22 (11) e3002917. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3002917. PMC 11627563. PMID 39585925.
• Vargová R, Chevreau R, Alves M, Dacks JB, Jackson CL (2025). "The Asgard archaeal origins of Arf family GTPases involved in eukaryotic organelle dynamics". Nature Microbiology. 10 (2): 495–508. doi:10.1038/s41564-024-01904-6. PMID 39849086.
• Záhonová K, Low RS, Warren CJ, Dacks JB, Tsaousis AD (2023). "Evolutionary analysis of cellular reduction and anaerobicity in the hyper-prevalent gut microbe Blastocystis". Current Biology. 33 (12): 2449–2464. Bibcode:2023CBio...33E2449Z. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2023.05.025. PMID 37267944.

External links

• University of Alberta Faculty Profile
• Joel B. Dacks publications indexed by Google Scholar