The McArthur laboratory’s research program is rooted in bioinformatics, functional genomics, and computational biology. It spans complex informatics approaches to the functional genomics of microbial drug resistance, development of biological databases, next generation sequencing for genome assembly and molecular epidemiology, automated literature curation approaches, controlled vocabularies for biological knowledge integration, and functional genomics approaches in environmental toxicology. He leads the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database, a global resource for genomic surveillance of drug resistant pathogens. His research often involves collaboration with Public Health agencies and license agreements with industrial partners.