Research Summary

We are a molecular biology and genomics lab working on (i) biofluorescence and (ii) evolution in the marine environment. We address a wide range of issues, including:

- molecular biology and ecology of fluorescence in marine organisms;

- resurrection of ancestral proteins and recreation of protein evolution pathways;

- artificial design of fluorescent proteins;

- adaptation of corals to ongoing climate change at the genomic level;

- tempo and mode of evolution of the deep-sea fauna;

- origin of novel larval body plan in ribbon worms (phylum Nemertea);

We integrate methods from the fields of optics, statistical phylogenetics, organismal biology and modern molecular biology including high-throughput genotyping, gene expression analysis, and new generation sequencing approaches.