Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Colorado (2012)
B.A. in Computer Science, Middlebury College (2001)
Dan Knights joined the Department of Computer Science & Engineering in 2012 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 2018, and was named the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Computational Biology in the College of Biological Sciences in 2022. Additionally, Knights was the CEO and co-founder of CoreBiome, Inc. from 2017-2020. Prior to coming to the University, he completed post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Knights' research interests are in developing data mining methods for feature extraction and prediction with high-dimensional and incomplete data. Much of his research has focused on using computational genomics to study the role of the microbiome in industrialization and human health. This work continues, alongside more recent work focused on modeling sustainability of various practices in human civilization, to identify changes that will make civilization more sustainable for many generations.
Research Division
Data Science and Machine Learning
Current Research
Google Scholar
Knights Lab
Ph.D. Graduates
Benjamin Hillmann (2022); Pajau Vangay (2018); Gabe Al-Ghalith (2018).
Knights named 2020 Highly Cited Researchers
CoreBiome Takes Home OVPR’s Innovation Award
U of M start-up CoreBiome acquired by OraSure Technologies, Inc
Immigration to the United States changes a person’s microbiome
U of M startup CoreBiome provides services to accelerate microbiome discovery across industries
2015: McKnight Land-Grant Professorship
Selected Grants
Targeting the gut microbiome to prevent the increasing incidence of obesity in immigrant populations
Knights, D., Kashyap, P.; Minnesota Partnership Grant Program; 4/1/19 - 6/30/22
Early life antibiotics, gut microbiome development, and risk of childhood obesity
Knights, D., Gerber, J.; The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; 2/15/16 → 1/31/22
Developing novel microbiota-targeted therapies for Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Knights, D., Kashyap, P.; Minnesota Partnership Grant Program; 8/1/14 - 8/31/17