Principle Investigator
Michael Lynch
Our research focuses on mechanisms of evolution at the gene, genomic, cellular, and phenotypic levels giving special attention to the role of mutation, random genetic drift, and recombination. We are especially interested in building evolutionary theory from first principles in population genetics and biophysics, and using this theory to explain patterns of phenotypic variation across the Tree of Life. Model organisms employed include the microcrustacean Daphnia, the ciliated protozoan Paramecium, and various other microbial species. Methodologies include high-throughput methods in genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics; high-performance computing; and mathematical analysis.
Staff
Aubrey Barkley
Research Technician
I am an undergraduate and former NASA intern who is researching the link between the Volvocine algae and the evolution of multicellularity.
Samuel Miller
Research Specialist Sr
In addition to leading day-to-day duties as the laboratory manager, I am involved in maintaining the Paramecium cultures and research duties in the lab. I also assist with experimental design/upkeep on multiple experiments and am completing/continuing a mass sequencing workflow required for various genomic analyzes.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Hisham Abu Ayyub Ali
Postdoctoral Researcher
I am interested in using mathematical models to understand the genomic effects of different microevolutionary processes. I am currently working on (1) modelling the effects of fluctuating selection, and (2) developing theoretical models to understand the conditions that favour or discourage different coevolutionary states.
Farhan Ali
Postdoctoral Researcher
I study variation in population-genetic environment, in terms of the effective population size, the recombination rate and the mutation rate, in diverse species across the tree-of-life.
Stephan Baehr
Postdoctoral Researcher
Stephan researches mutation rates of all sorts, and is interested in the causes and consequences of mutation rate variation. Interests include the biology of aging, the mutagenicity of CRISPR, and the mutation rate of organisms with small genomes. Stephan shares a fundamental interest in the rate of variation increase in biological systems, and wishes to better understand the physics of organisms which have evolved lower rates of variance accumulation over time.
Susmita Halder
Postdoctoral Researcher
My research interests lie at the intersection of mathematical biology and population genetics. With a background in mathematical biology, currently I am doing research in population genetis by using mathematical models to explore the evolutionary process within populations.
Berenice Jimenez-Marin
Postdoctoral Researcher
I am interested in studying major evolutionary transitions, especially multicellularity, but overall aim to harness both experimental and bioinformatic approaches to tackle biological questions integratively. Currently, I am working towards bettering our understanding of the evolution of promoter architectures using a unicellular ciliate mosel system.
Kunaal Joshi
Postdoctoral Researcher
I have a background in mathematical modeling of stochastic dynamical systems, and am currently investigating the evolution of the scaling patterns of cell size and growth rate across the tree of life.
Scott Menor
Assistant Research Scientist
I'm working on modelling co-evolution theoretically and in simulation and am exploring ways biological and other complex systems self-organise and increase or decrease in complexity.
Paul Schavemaker
Assistant Research Scientist
I have interest in: (1) Determining the cost-benefit relations for cellular features such as flagella, cytoskeleton, mitochondria, and the endomembrane system – examining a diverse set of single-celled species. (2) Combining these relations with evolutionary theory to illuminate the origin of eukaryotes.
Wen Wei
Assistant Research Scientist
I‘m interested in understanding the pattern of genetic and phenotypic evolution across several model species. I currently work with the microcrustacean Daphnia, especially focusing on the effects of Daphnia genome expansion on the diversity of reproduction cycles, and the origin of the male-deficient and the obligate parthenogenesis lineage.
PhD Students
Man Lin
My research interest are: (1) molecular coevolution, with specific focus on interaction between the nucleus and organelles; (2) cell-type evolution.
Ryan Stikeleather
Ryan Stikeleather is a PhD candidate specializing in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics. He is developing a method that leverages mass spectrometry data in order to determine translation error rates.
Bogoljub Trickovic
I am interested in understanding the mechanistic causes of various scaling laws in evolutionary cell biology.
Masters Students
Alexander Day
My focus is on the Volvocales clade of algae to study how multicellularity affects the energy budget of cells.
Logan Graham
Research Technician
I am a 4+1 student that is currently pursing a Master's degree in Microbiology. My project is focused on altering mutation rate in MMR- background evolved E. coli strains.
Methila Sarker Pooja
I am currently pursuing a Master's degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology, with a keen interest in population genetics, mutation accumulation, and the biology of aging. My current research revolves around microcrustaceans Daphnia, with a primary focus on identifying the factors that explain the differences in the lifespans of Daphnia pulicaria and Daphnia pulex.
Chetana Vendanaparthy
My research focuses on studying the evolution of E. coli chimeras and wildtypes and estimating their growth and metabolic rates.