My lab seeks to understand the genomic basis of functional and fitness-altering variation through the development and application of computational methods. Our work combines diverse datasets and concepts from population genetics and statistics to achieve quantitative perspectives on human evolution and reproduction.
Human Evolution
- Evolution of poorly resolved and repetitive regions of the genome, including loci harboring structural variation
- Functional and fitness impacts of gene flow from our archaic hominin relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans
- Statistical methods for improving the mapping of complex traits in samples from diverse and admixed populations
Human reproduction
- Molecular origins of human aneuploidy, implications for human development, and genetic factors influencing its occurrence
- Preimplantation and prenatal genetic testing, especially with respect to aneuploidy and structural variation
- Deviations of expected patterns of Mendelian inheritance, for example by meiotic drive, embryonic mortality, or other mechanisms of transmission distortion
