Rate My Professor Sonia Singhal

Sonia Singhal is an Assistant Professor of Biology in the Department of Biological Sciences at San Jose State University, where she directs the PhAGE Lab. She earned a B.S. from Yale University and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle. She completed a SPIRE Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research centers on microbial experimental evolution using bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, as model organisms. The lab evolves microbial populations over hundreds of generations under controlled conditions to study evolutionary dynamics. Key areas include the fitness effects of spontaneous mutations, consequences of coinfection, evolution of host range and thermostability, genetic exchange, and mutational robustness. Bacteriophages like the Φ6 cystovirus, which has a segmented RNA genome and capacity for multiple infections per host cell, serve as non-pathogenic proxies for human-infecting RNA viruses. This work elucidates principles relevant to emerging viral diseases, life history strategies, and environmental changes such as climate impacts.

Singhal's publications include "Experimental Evolution Studies in Φ6 Cystovirus" (Viruses, 2024, co-authored with San Jose State University students Akiko K. Balitactac, Aruna G. Nayagam, Parnian Pour Bahrami, Sara Nayeem, and Yale's Paul E. Turner); "Survival of Thermostable Φ6 Genotypes in Acidic, Basic, and UV Environments" (2025); "Effects of historical co-infection on host shift abilities of exploitative and competitive viruses" (Evolution, 2021); "Recombination drives the evolution of mutational robustness" (Current Opinion in Systems Biology, 2019); "Adaptations of an RNA virus to increasing thermal stress" (PLOS ONE, 2017); and "Host demography influences the prevalence and severity of eelgrass wasting disease" (Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, 2014). Her scholarship, with over 100 citations, advances synthetic biology, host-parasite interactions, and experimental evolution. At San Jose State University, she teaches undergraduates, mentors students from diverse backgrounds, and engages in public outreach on microbial evolution.