The Levy lab used comparative and functional genomics approaches to systematically characterize the extracellular contractile injection system (eCIS), a microbial toxin delivery system. By analyzing 65,000 genomes we identified that eCIS is prevalent in environmental microbes from soil, water, plants, and invertebrates and is depleted from mammalian pathogens and commensal bacteria. We identified eCIS operons, discovered novel toxins, and created a comprehensive eCIS database (see paper). See more at Asaf Levy Lab.