People: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics
Etya Amsalem
Associate Professor of Entomology
The evolutionary development and the mechanistic basis of social behavior in insects using an integrative approach encompassing chemical, genetic and physiological tools
Charles Anderson
Co-Director, Center for Biorenewables; Professor of Biology
In vivo imaging of plant cell wall dynamics. Molecular genetic analysis of genes involved in cell growth. Cell wall biosynthesis in dividing cells. Cell wall engineering for sustainable bioenergy production.
Marco Archetti
Associate Professor of Biology
Evolutionary Genetics. Cancer dynamics. Defective interfering viruses. Evolutionary game theory.
Michael Axtell
Distinguished Professor of Biology
Discovery and characterization of plant microRNAs and siRNAs. Functions of microRNAs and siRNAs in the evolution of plant development. Genomics and bioinformatics of microRNAs, siRNAs, and their targets
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 interplay of diet, drugs, and the gut microbiome.
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 different reactions or use distinct cofactors.
Seth Bordenstein
Director of the Microbiome Center; Huck Chair in Microbiome Sciences; Professor of Biology and Entomology
The evolutionary and genetic principles that shape symbiotic interactions between animals, microbes, and viruses and the major applications of these interactions to human health.
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; Former Dean, Eberly College of Science
Regulation of protein synthesis and control of translation initiation of mRNAs in higher eukaryotes and the evolution of tissue specific transcriptional regulation.
Surinder Chopra
Professor of Maize Genetics
Regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis during plant development and plant-pathogen interaction. Epigenetic regulation and allele specific patterns.
Emily Davenport
Assistant Professor of Biology
Understanding the complex relationship humans have with our microbiomes, using high-throughput sequencing technologies and novel computational and statistical techniques.
Claude dePamphilis
Director of the Center for Parasitic and Carnivorous Plants; Huck Distinguished Chair in Plant Biology and Evolutionary Genomics; Professor of Biology
Genomics, bioinformatics, and molecular evolution. Origin and diversification of flowers and developmental pathways. Comparative genomics of plants, organelles, and plant gene families. Genomics, evolution, and functional biology of parasitic plants.
Francisco Dini-Andreote
Huck Early Career Chair in Microbial Community Ecology, Assistant Professor of Plant Science
Microbiome, plant-microbe interactions, and community ecology. Harnessing the plant microbiome to enhance protection against biotic and abiotic stresses.
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 disease.
Lindsay Fernandez-Rhodes
Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health
The genetic epidemiology of complex diseases in diverse human populations and contexts.
Majid Foolad
Professor of Plant Genetics
Genetic characterization of resistance/tolerance to biotic/abiotic stresses, and genes/QTLs contributing to tomato fruit quality. Investigation of genes/QTLs for directed crop improvement and germplasm enhancement. Tomato cultivar development & release.
Erika Ganda
Emphasis Area Representative, Microbiome Sciences; Assistant Professor of Food Animal Microbiomes
Developing practical ways to leverage the microbiome to improve food safety and improve food production animals' production efficiency.
David Geiser
Professor of Mycology
Molecular evolutionary genetics of pathogenic and toxigenic fungi.
Pamela Giblin
Professor of Immunology
The role of receptor tyrosine kinases in normal physiology and disease progression; the downstream signals that mediate these responses in vivo and in vitro.
Santhosh Girirajan
Professor of Genomics; Professor of Anthropology; Department Head of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Understanding the genetic basis of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Christina Grozinger
Director of the Center for Pollinator Research; Director of the Insect Biodiversity Center; 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; Professor of Plant Molecular Biology
Plant functional genomics, metabolomics and biotechnology. Identification of key genes for disease resistance and important traits in the tree crop Theoboma cacao, the Chocolate tree.
Wendy Hanna-Rose
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Head of BMB
Molecular Genetics of Metabolism and Development in C. elegans
Heather Hines
Associate Professor of Biology and Entomology
Applies genomic, transcriptomic, phylogenomic, and bioinformatic approaches to study the evolution and genetics of diverse traits in bees and wasps. This includes study of mimetic color diversification, plant gall induction, novel morphologies, speciation, and social evolution.
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 Biology Faculty
Kelli Hoover
Professor of Entomology
Invasive species of forest insects; plant-insect-entomopathogen interactions; impacts of plants on pathogenesis; biological control of hemlock woolly adelgid
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 model system. Molecular genetics and comparative genomics of fungal plant pathogens. Bioinformatics.
Vivek Kapur
Associate Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; 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
Assistant Professor of Biology
Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases, with particular interest in how disease dynamics influence pathogen emergence, virulence evolution, and drug or vaccine resistance.
Tae Hyun Kim
Huck Early Career Chair; Assistant Professor of Avian Biology
Improving poultry health by applying modern genetic approaches including gene editing. Particular focus on identifying key genes and regulatory elements associated with improved economic traits.
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 potential, antimicrobial resistance, and epidemiology of foodborne pathogens.
Zhi-Chun Lai
Emphasis Area Representative, Cell and Developmental Biology; Professor of Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Signal Transduction, Growth Control, and Cancer Genetics
Tae-Hee Lee
Professor of Chemistry
Single-molecule biophysics of the nucleosome and chromatin
Scott Lindner
Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Co-Director, Center for Malaria Research
Our laboratory couples molecular parasitology and structural biology to study the malaria parasite (Plasmodium spp.).
Aimin Liu
Associate Professor of Biology
Biogenesis and function of cilia in mammalian embryonic development.
Wansheng Liu
Professor of Genomics
Functional annotation of farm animal genomes, structure and function of mammalian sex (X and Y) chromosome, spermatogenesis and male fertility.
Bernhard Luscher
Emphasis Area Representative, Neurobiology; Professor of Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Function of GABAergic synaptic transmission in health and disease, with emphasis of stress based psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorders and mechanisms of antidepressant drug action
Shaun Mahony
Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
We apply neural networks and other machine learning approaches to understand how transcription factors control cellular identity
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 and its relationship to mental illnesses; identification of drugs that can reverse mouse models of psychiatric disorders.
Elizabeth McGraw
Professor and Huck Scholar in Entomology
The genetics of vector, pathogen and symbiont interactions.
Timothy Meredith
Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Understanding how bacterial cell surface complex lipids are synthesized, to characterize structural modifications in response to varying growth environments, and to uncover how these changes are regulated.
Katsuhiko Murakami
Faculty Director of the Cryo-Electron Microscopy Core Facility; Interim Director, 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
Professor and Huck Chair of Molecular Toxicology; Faculty Oversight, Metabolomics Core Facility
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 and hypoxic stress
Gary Perdew
Director of the Center for Molecular Toxicology and Carcinogenesis; H. Thomas and Dorothy Willits Hallowell Chair in Agricultural Sciences
Mechanisms of receptor-mediated carcinogenesis.
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
Roles of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) in the regulation of homeostasis, toxicology, and carcinogenesis.
David Puts
Professor of Anthropology
Understanding both the endocrine mechanisms underlying human sexual differentiation and the evolution of these mechanisms, particularly the influence of sexual selection.
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 evolution of carnivorous plants.
Melissa Rolls
Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences; Director of the Center for Cellular Dynamics; Paul Berg Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Subcellular compartmentalization of neurons. The cellular basis of neuronal polarity and neuronal responses to injury including degeneration and regeneration.
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, and learning how these manipulate host budding machinery to allow virus release.
Idan Shalev
Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health
Interdisciplinary approach to identify mechanisms underpinning the biological embedding of stress across the lifespan with a special focus on biological aging.
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 evolutionary transitions?
Moriah Szpara
Professor of Biology
How genetic variation influences the outcomes of viral infection, particularly for neurotropic viruses such as herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2, using high-throughput sequencing, comparative genomics, neuronal cultures, and genetic manipulation of both host and pathogen.
Zachary Szpiech
Assistant Professor of Biology
Population and evolutionary genetics, with applications to medical genetics, anthropology, and conservation
Claire Thomas
Associate Professor of Biology and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Roles of the cytoskeleton at the cell membrane in epithelial cells, including issues of cell polarity and adhesion, cell signaling, and morphogenesis.
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 across the “phenome” and their connections with cognitive decline as well as genetic underpinnings of sex and ancestral differences in cognitive decline.
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 affect competition, host colonization, and pathogenesis.
Laura Weyrich
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Reconstructing ancient oral microbiomes and supporting ancient DNA analysis of past humans, environments, and animals.
Fang (Rose) Zhu
Assistant Professor of Entomology
Understanding the mechanisms and evolution of insects’ adaptation to chemical stresses in their environment.