Tristan's research focuses on the identification, regulation, and evolution of the antiviral systems of diverse eukaryotes. While we have robust detail on how higher eukaryotes such as plants and animals detect and defend against viral infections, we have very little sense of how lower eukaryotes such as protists protect themselves. The research goals of his lab are: i) deepen our understanding of how mammalian antiviral responses are regulated; ii) expand our understanding of the evolutionary solutions to viral infection; iii) identify and understand any evolutionary conservation between the two; and iv) understand how viruses counter these processes. Tristan's lab combines standard molecular biological techniques, high-throughput screening, field sampling, Next-generation sequencing, and evolutionary analysis to address these areas of research interest. While his major focus is on the basic biology that underlies these processes, the study of antiviral systems has important translational applications, and the discovery of several major antiviral systems has led to watersheds in either biotechnology or medicine. Thus, he is also interested in pursuing the translatable aspects of promising discoveries.