Current Members

Principal Investigator

imageDmitri Petrov
Position: Associate Professor of Biology. Academic Interests: I am interested in molecular evolution and evolutionary genetics. For details on some of our projects please visit the Research page of this web site. Publications: A number of publications have come from our lab. For a full listing, go to the Publications page. CV: My CV can be found online.

Post-Docs/Fellows:

image Josefa Gonzalez
I am interested in the study of adaptation both at the molecular and phenotypic level. My current research involves the use of transposable elements (TEs) in Drosophila melanogaster as a tool to find adaptive mutations. We searched for TEs that increased in population frequency sharply after the spread out of Africa and identified a set of thirteen elements likely to be adaptive. I am further investigating these elements by sequencing their flanking regions and looking for evidence of selective sweeps. I am analyzing the molecular evolution of the nearby genes and looking for differences in their expression patterns. I am also interested in the population dynamics of transposable elements, in particular, whether the rate of transposition and the strength of purifying selection against transposable elements is a property of the family to which the elements belong.

image Ruth Hershberg website
I use theoretical and experimental methodologies in order to study the evolution of gene expression and of gene repertoires in bacteria. I am currently pursuing to major projects. In the first I am experimentally and theoretically examining the evolution of transcription regulation through trans and cis mutations. In my second project I am using bioinformatic and molecular evolution methodologies to examine the evolution of gene loss in pathogenic bacteria.

imageJames J. Cai website
I am interested in applying population-genetic theories to modern molecular genetic data. I develop various statistical tests and computational tools to understand the processes shaping genome variability patterns within and between species. The particular questions I would like to address are something like these--(1) Which mutations in which genes are responsible for adaptive molecular evolution of humans? (2) What proportion of human genetic variation are selectively neutral, advantageous, deleterious? (3) How can we use evolutionary genomics to predict which types of changes in which types of genes may be involved in human disease?

image Philipp Messer
My primary research interest is evolutionary genomics. In particular, I am interested in the elementary patterns of mutational processes that underlie the generation of genetic changes in DNA. In my Ph.D. work conducted at the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin I approached this problem by comparative genomics methods using genome-level datasets, as well as by modeling of evolutionary processes with respect to their effect on statistical properties of genomes. The major focus of my proposed research at Stanford is to investigate the contribution of selection to these processes. For this purpose, we aim at developing sophisticated population genetics simulations of recurrent selective sweeps in a coalescent framework.

image Anna-sophie Fiston-Lavier website
I am interested by the impact of repeats (transposable elements, segmental duplications and satellites) on the genome structure and evolution. During my PhD, I investigated a repeat dynamics study in eukaryotic genomes. I developed computational tools to detect and analyse repeats. Comparative genomic approach and sequence analysis of segmental duplications contribute to propose a mechanistic model of segmental duplication formation based on a non-allelic homologous recombination model. Using phylogenic and statistic approaches, I investigated the comparative study of sequence turnover of repeats in euchromatin and heterochromatin. My postdoc research project will focus on genome evolution. The development of a combine approach of population genetics and comparative genomics will allow us to discuss the impact of transposable elements on genome evolution on a short and large scale.

Graduate Student:

image Penka
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In egestas nisl sit amet odio. Duis iaculis metus eu nulla. Donec venenatis sapien sed urna. Donec et felis ut elit elementum pellentesque. Praesent bibendum turpis semper lacus. Sed quis risus vitae eros nonummy aliquet. Curabitur congue, purus eget auctor egestas, nunc pede suscipit erat, a egestas nisi eros non orci. Fusce dolor. Etiam dictum ipsum in turpis. Nunc elit nibh, facilisis vitae, iaculis sed, sodales vel, sapien. Cras est massa, sodales at, commodo a, ultrices ac, urna. Nam eu turpis sed ante sagittis vestibulum.

image David Lawrie
Graduate studentLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In egestas nisl sit amet odio. Duis iaculis metus eu nulla. Donec venenatis sapien sed urna. Donec et felis ut elit elementum pellentesque. Praesent bibendum turpis semper lacus. Sed quis risus vitae eros nonummy aliquet. Curabitur congue, purus eget auctor egestas, nunc pede suscipit erat, a egestas nisi eros non orci. Fusce dolor. Etiam dictum ipsum in turpis. Nunc elit nibh, facilisis vitae, iaculis sed, sodales vel, sapien. Cras est massa, sodales at, commodo a, ultrices ac, urna. Nam eu turpis sed ante sagittis vestibulum.

image Jeremy Chang
Rotation student Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In egestas nisl sit amet odio. Duis iaculis metus eu nulla. Donec venenatis sapien sed urna. Donec et felis ut elit elementum pellentesque. Praesent bibendum turpis semper lacus. Sed quis risus vitae eros nonummy aliquet. Curabitur congue, purus eget auctor egestas, nunc pede suscipit erat, a egestas nisi eros non orci. Fusce dolor. Etiam dictum ipsum in turpis. Nunc elit nibh, facilisis vitae, iaculis sed, sodales vel, sapien. Cras est massa, sodales at, commodo a, ultrices ac, urna. Nam eu turpis sed ante sagittis vestibulum.

image Dan Kwitek
Rotation student Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In egestas nisl sit amet odio. Duis iaculis metus eu nulla. Donec venenatis sapien sed urna. Donec et felis ut elit elementum pellentesque. Praesent bibendum turpis semper lacus. Sed quis risus vitae eros nonummy aliquet. Curabitur congue, purus eget auctor egestas, nunc pede suscipit erat, a egestas nisi eros non orci. Fusce dolor. Etiam dictum ipsum in turpis. Nunc elit nibh, facilisis vitae, iaculis sed, sodales vel, sapien. Cras est massa, sodales at, commodo a, ultrices ac, urna. Nam eu turpis sed ante sagittis vestibulum.

image John Powell
Rotation student Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In egestas nisl sit amet odio. Duis iaculis metus eu nulla. Donec venenatis sapien sed urna. Donec et felis ut elit elementum pellentesque. Praesent bibendum turpis semper lacus. Sed quis risus vitae eros nonummy aliquet. Curabitur congue, purus eget auctor egestas, nunc pede suscipit erat, a egestas nisi eros non orci. Fusce dolor. Etiam dictum ipsum in turpis. Nunc elit nibh, facilisis vitae, iaculis sed, sodales vel, sapien. Cras est massa, sodales at, commodo a, ultrices ac, urna. Nam eu turpis sed ante sagittis vestibulum.

image Diamantis Sellis
Future graduate student Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In egestas nisl sit amet odio. Duis iaculis metus eu nulla. Donec venenatis sapien sed urna. Donec et felis ut elit elementum pellentesque. Praesent bibendum turpis semper lacus. Sed quis risus vitae eros nonummy aliquet. Curabitur congue, purus eget auctor egestas, nunc pede suscipit erat, a egestas nisi eros non orci. Fusce dolor. Etiam dictum ipsum in turpis. Nunc elit nibh, facilisis vitae, iaculis sed, sodales vel, sapien. Cras est massa, sodales at, commodo a, ultrices ac, urna. Nam eu turpis sed ante sagittis vestibulum.

Undergraduate Student:

image Talia L. Karasov
Talia is a fourth year undergraduate student in the Biological sciences and is doing her senior honors thesis in the Petrov lab. She hails from Madison, Wisconsin. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In egestas nisl sit amet odio. Duis iaculis metus eu nulla. Donec venenatis sapien sed urna. Donec et felis ut elit elementum pellentesque. Praesent bibendum turpis semper lacus. Sed quis risus vitae eros nonummy aliquet. Curabitur congue, purus eget auctor egestas, nunc pede suscipit erat, a egestas nisi eros non orci. Fusce dolor. Etiam dictum ipsum in turpis. Nunc elit nibh, facilisis vitae, iaculis sed, sodales vel, sapien. Cras est massa, sodales at, commodo a, ultrices ac, urna. Nam eu turpis sed ante sagittis vestibulum.

Collaborators

Peter Arndt
  

Guy Sella
  

Frank Chan
  

Felicity Jones
  

Ron Davis
  

Minx Fuller
  

Jed Dean
  

Gretchen Daily