The Molecular and Evolutionary Genetics emphasis area focuses on understanding the molecular basis for how genes function in organisms at the cellular and organismal levels, as well as on understanding the processes that modulate molecular and phenotypic variation in the diverse organisms of the earth. Students, in collaboration with a faculty mentor, conduct original research ranging the molecular to the population level in a wide range of model systems.
Related Faculty
Etya Amsalem
- Associate Professor of Entomology
The evolutionary development and the mechanistic basis of social behavior in insects using an integrative approach. . .
Charles Anderson
- Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Plant Biology
- Professor of Biology
In vivo imaging of plant cell wall dynamics. Molecular genetic analysis of genes involved in cell growth. Cell wall. . .
Marco Archetti
- Associate Professor of Biology
Evolutionary Genetics. Cancer dynamics. Defective interfering viruses. Evolutionary game theory.
Michael Axtell
- Professor of Biology
- Louis and Hedwig Sternberg Chair in Plant Biology
Discovery and characterization of plant microRNAs and siRNAs. Functions of microRNAs and siRNAs in the evolution of plant. . .
Lu Bai
- Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Professor of Physics
Single cell / single molecule study of chromatin and gene regulation.
Jordan Bisanz
- Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The interface of microbiology and bioinformatics, with approaches including genomics and metabolomics to investigate the. . .
Amie Boal
- Professor of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The structural differences between members of large metalloenzyme superfamilies that share common features but promote. . .
Seth Bordenstein
- Director of the One Health Microbiome Center
- Huck Chair in Microbiome Sciences
The evolutionary and genetic principles that shape symbiotic interactions between animals, microbes, and viruses and the. . .
John Carlson
- Professor of Molecular Genetics
- Director, Schatz Center for Tree Molecular Genetics
Genome mapping, including genetic linkage mapping, molecular cytogenetics; studies of genetic diversity in forests.
Douglas Cavener
- Huck Distinguished Chair in Evolutionary Genetics
- Professor of Biology
Regulation of protein synthesis and control of translation initiation of mRNAs in higher eukaryotes and the evolution of. . .
Surinder Chopra
- Professor of Maize Genetics
Regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis during plant development and plant-pathogen interaction. Epigenetic regulation and. . .
Emily Davenport
- Assistant Professor of Biology
Understanding the complex relationship humans have with our microbiomes, using high-throughput sequencing technologies and. . .
Francisco Dini-Andreote
- Huck Early Career Chair in Microbial Community Ecology, Associate Professor of Plant Science
Microbiome, plant-microbe interactions, and community ecology. Harnessing the plant microbiome to enhance protection against. . .
Manyu Du
- Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
How transcription machineries and regulatory DNA elements organize in 3D in the nucleus to regulate gene expression.
Robert Eckhardt
- Professor
Genetic and environmental influences on growth and development in human populations.
Marina Feric
- Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Biomolecular engineering of cellular organization. Biophysical mechanisms underlying biomolecular condensates in health and. . .
Lindsay Fernandez-Rhodes
- Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health
Majid Foolad
- Professor of Plant Genetics
Genetic characterization of resistance/tolerance to biotic/abiotic stresses, and genes/QTLs contributing to tomato fruit. . .
Erika Ganda
- Emphasis Area Representative, Microbiome Sciences
- Associate Professor of Food Animal Microbiomes
Developing practical ways to leverage the microbiome to improve food safety and improve food production animals' production. . .
David Geiser
- Professor of Mycology
Genomics of fungi, applied to the evolution of plant and animal disease, toxin production, and beneficial roles. Fungal. . .
Santhosh Girirajan
- Professor of Genomics
- Professor of Anthropology
Understanding the genetic basis of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Christina Grozinger
- Director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
- Publius Vergilius Maro Professor and Huck Scholar of Entomology
Genomics of social behavior and health in bees
Ying Gu
- Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Mechanism of cellulose biosynthesis in higher plants. Genetic modification of plant cell wall to scale-up biofuel production.
Mark Guiltinan
- Director, Plant Institute
- J. Franklin Styer Professor of Horticultural Botany
Plant functional genomics, metabolomics and biotechnology. Identification of key genes for disease resistance and important. . .
Wendy Hanna-Rose
- Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Head of BMB
Molecular Genetics of Metabolism and Development in C. elegans
Heather Hines
- Interim Director, Center for Pollinator Research
- Interim Director, Insect Biodiversity Center
Applies genomic, transcriptomic, phylogenomic, and bioinformatic approaches to study the evolution and genetics of diverse. . .
Kevin Hockett
- Huck Early Career Chair
- Associate Professor of Microbial Ecology
Biological Control, Biology and Ecology of Plant-Microbe and Plant-Environment Interactions, Microbial Ecology and Population. . .
David Huff
- Professor of Turfgrass Breeding and Genetics
Population genetics. Plant evolution and ecology. Crop improvement. Physiological tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress.
Timothy Jegla
- Emphasis Area Representative, Molecular and Evolutionary Genetics
- Associate Professor of Biology
Functional evolution of eukaryotic ion channels and evolution of neuronal signaling and cell structure.
Helen Kamens
- Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health
Identification of genetic mechanisms that contribute to complex behaviors with a special emphasis on alcohol and tobacco use.
Seogchan Kang
- Professor of Plant Pathology & Environmental Microbiology
Genetic and cellular mechanisms underpinning plant-fungal interactions with Arabidopsis thaliana and Fusarium oxysporum as a. . .
Vivek Kapur
- Huck Distinguished Chair in Global Health
- Professor of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
The basic mechanisms by which pathogenic microbes successfully infect, colonize, and cause disease in their hosts.
David Kennedy
- Associate Professor of Biology
Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases, with particular interest in how disease dynamics influence pathogen emergence,. . .
Jasna Kovac
- Lester Earl and Veronica Casida Career Development Professor of Food Safety
- Associate Professor of Food Science
Integrating epidemiological, microbiological, molecular and omics methods to better understand microbial pathogenic. . .
Zhi-Chun Lai
- Emphasis Area Representative, Cell and Developmental Biology
- Professor of Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Signal Transduction, Growth Control, and Cancer Genetics
Scott Lindner
- Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
RNA/protein complexes, translational control, and the specialized ribosomes of malaria parasites using sequencing,. . .
Wansheng Liu
- Professor of Genomics
Functional annotation of farm animal genomes, structure and function of mammalian sex (X and Y) chromosome, spermatogenesis. . .
Aimin Liu
- Associate Professor of Biology
Biogenesis and function of cilia in mammalian embryonic development.
Shaun Mahony
- Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
We apply neural networks and other machine learning approaches to understand how transcription factors control cellular. . .
Kateryna Makova
- Director of the Center for Medical Genomics
- Professor of Biology
Molecular evolution, population genetics, evolutionary genomics, bioinformatics, and human genetics.
Yingwei Mao
- Professor of Biology
Regulation of neurogenesis using cellular and mouse models; analysis of abnormal neural progenitor cell (NPC) proliferation. . .
Elizabeth McGraw
- Professor and Huck Scholar in Entomology
The genetics of vector, pathogen and symbiont interactions.
Timothy Meredith
- Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Understanding how bacterial cell surface complex lipids are synthesized, to characterize structural modifications in response. . .
Rob Mitchell
- Associate Professor of Chemical Ecology
Entomology, chemical ecology, and chemoreception.
Katsuhiko Murakami
- Director of the Center for Structural Biology
- Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Structural and Mechanistic Enzymology of Prokaryotic RNA Polymerases
Anton Nekrutenko
- Dorothy Foher Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Genomics, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Evolution of overlapping reading frames in eukaryotic genomes.
Richard Ordway
- Professor of Molecular Neuroscience and Genetics
Genetic analysis of neural function.
Andrew Patterson
- Associate Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
- Professor of Molecular Toxicology
The Patterson lab is focused on understanding the host-metabolite-microbiome axis
Robert Paulson
- Professor of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
The Paulson lab studies the mechanisms that regulate tissue regeneration with a focus on understanding the response to anemic. . .
Gary Perdew
- H. Thomas and Dorothy Willits Hallowell Chair in Agricultural Sciences
Mechanisms of receptor-mediated carcinogenesis. Regulation and functional analysis of Ah receptor activity: role in cancer. . .
George Perry
- Professor of Anthropology and Biology
Anthropological genomics, paleogenomics, human body size evolution, parasite evolution, and evolutionary medicine.
Jeffrey Peters
- Distinguished Professor of Molecular Toxicology and Carcinogenesis
- Interim Director, The Penn State Cancer Institute
Roles of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) in the regulation of homeostasis, toxicology, and. . .
David Puts
- Huck Associate Director for Graduate Education
- Professor of Anthropology
Understanding both the endocrine mechanisms underlying human sexual differentiation and the evolution of these mechanisms,. . .
Joseph Reese
- Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Gene regulation in cell cycle and DNA damage control; regulation of DNA damage-induced transcription.
Tanya Renner
- Associate Professor of Entomology
Evolution of chemical and structural defense. Molecular evolution, evolutionary genomics, and transcriptomics. Origins and. . .
Melissa Rolls
- Lead Huck Graduate Chair
- Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences
Subcellular compartmentalization of neurons. The cellular basis of neuronal polarity and neuronal responses to injury. . .
Carly Schissel
- Assistant Professor of Chemistry
The discovery, design, and synthesis of bioactive peptides with unusual amino acids and structures to create novel peptides. . .
Anthony Schmitt
- Professor of Molecular Immunology and Infectious Diseases
The process of paramyxovirus particle formation by budding: identifying and characterizing viral proteins used in budding,. . .
Idan Shalev
- Professor of Biobehavioral Health
Interdisciplinary approach to identify mechanisms underpinning the biological embedding of stress across the lifespan with a. . .
Mark Shriver
- Professor of Biological Anthropology
Human population genomics and complex disease mapping.
Tom Stewart
- Assistant Professor of Biology
Evolutionary and developmental approaches to ask: how does morphological novelty evolve, and what are the causes of major. . .
Moriah Szpara
- Professor of Biology
How genetic variation influences the outcomes of viral infection, particularly for neurotropic viruses such as herpes simplex. . .
Zachary Szpiech
- Associate Professor of Biology
Population and evolutionary genetics, with applications to medical genetics, anthropology, and conservation
Juan Manuel Vazquez
The evolution of longevity in mammals, with a special interest in humans, bats, and cetaceans
Yogasudha Veturi
- Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health and of Statistics
Developing novel statistical and machine learning methods to better understand shared genetics between complex human diseases. . .
Emily Weinert
- Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The mechanisms by which bacteria sense and respond to the environment, as well as how these signaling proteins/pathways. . .
Laura Weyrich
- Professor of Anthropology
Reconstructing ancient oral microbiomes and supporting ancient DNA analysis of past humans, environments, and animals.
Fang (Rose) Zhu
- Associate Professor of Entomology
Understanding the mechanisms and evolution of insects’ adaptation to chemical stresses in their environment.