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Research

The central area of interest of the lab is theoretical population genetics and statistical genetics. Specifically, projects focus on developing theory and statistical methods for analyzing genomic-scale population genetic data. Much of this work investigates questions in evolutionary genetics, focusing on human evolutionary history and using data from emerging genotyping and sequencing technologies.

A sample of on-going research interests are:

Population genetic methods and theory

  • Methods for studying population structure
  • The impact of population structure on genome-wide association studies and methods to correct for the effects of population structure
  • Inference of the relative strength of selection and dispersal based on the geographic spread of advantageous alleles
  • Within-host, between-host-individual, and between-host-species adaptive evolution in viruses (w/ Jamie Lloyd-Smith and Sebastian Schrieber)
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    Human Population Genetics

  • Patterns of population structure in human populations especially within world regions and finer spatial-scales

  • The interaction of selection and demographic history in human evolutionary history

  • Correcting for population structure in human genome-wide association studies

  • Personalized genomics: Inference of detailed individual ancestry from genetic data

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    Population genetics of canids

    In collaboration with Bob Wayne and the larger CanMap project:

  • The genetic basis of adaptive evolution during early dog domestication from grey wolves

  • The demographic history of early dog domestication

  • Population structure and signatures of selection among arctic wolf ecotypes (e.g. tundra vs. taiga forms)

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