Science’s equivalent of the Oscars, the Eureka Prize has singled out two ANU scientists for their work in trying to answer the million-dollar question: how did the world’s first life form evolve into the biodiversity of today?

No easy task, but 10 years of work has paid off for Dr Minh Bui and Professor Robert Lanfear, who are finalists in the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for “excellence in research software”.

Their software – dubbed IQ-TREE2 – combines their computer science and biology expertise to create free, open-source software that turns DNA data into crucial evolutionary insights.

Dr Bui says IQ-TREE2 is used to investigate everything from early life forms to the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. This user-friendly tool, first released in 2019, has become a staple for life scientists worldwide.

“I was really surprised when I saw the email that we were finalists, I feel very honoured and excited,” Dr Bui says.

“IQ-TREE software uses data to get evolutionary insights into how species relate to each other. It has been used for a lot of things, not just to understand the Covid virus and variances, but also to understand the evolution of life on Earth. We wanted to understand what happened about the very first single-cell life form billions of years ago; how it gives rise to the diversity that we see nowadays.

“Because we are addressing the question billions of years ago, with many unknowns, it’s a very difficult question. The selling point of IQ-TREE2 is that we have integrated many complex models to help infer the unknowns in an accurate way.”

The two ANU scientists have attracted the attention of the Zuckerbergs, receiving grants for their ground-breaking work.

They are just one of 55 finalists shortlisted for 18 Eureka Prizes, which reward excellence in the fields of research and innovation, leadership, science engagement, and school science.

Two years from now, Dr Bui says he hopes to develop an IQ-TREE version three, to improve and add new analyst features.

“We are one of the leading groups in the world working on the field of bio-genomics,” Dr Bui says.

Winners will be announced 23 August.

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