Associated Faculty

Neda Barghi

Group Leader at Institute of Population Genetics, Vetmeduni Vienna

Research area

Neda Barghi is an evolutionary biologist focusing on the genomics of complex adaptive traits. She is specifically interested in the genomic signatures of adaptive evolution in response to biotic and abiotic environmental changes. She uses an array of tools from Pool-Seq time-series data, molecular and phenotypic assays, and computer simulations to investigate the genetic basis of adaptation in experimental evolution populations of Drosophila.

Rui Borges

Lecturer in Statistics, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews

publications

Research area

Rui Borges is an evolutionary biologist fascinated by the evolution of genomic sequences. He develops models of sequence evolution that aim at reconciling the population- and species-level processes by which species continuously emerge and diverge. His research also includes developing computational and statistical methods to detect molecular signatures of evolutionary relevance from large-scale genomic datasets, now commonplace in molecular studies.

Marlies Dolezal

Institute of Population Genetics, Vetmeduni Vienna

publications

Research area

Marlies Dolezal is a quantitative geneticist and animal breeder. She has mapped QTLs using pedigree based and whole genome association analysis for a variety of production and fitness traits in livestock populations. Methodological work included the development of a new mapping technique for selective DNA pooling and combining population and quantitative genomics approaches to increase mapping power. Recent work has focussed on identifying and genetically characterizing copy number variants in cattle and pig populations.

Martin Polz

Professor at Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna

publications

Research area

Martin Polz is broadly interested in structure-function relationships in microbial populations in the wild. One of the main topics is the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of microbial population using a combination of genomic, genetic, computational and in situ observation techniques. The lab also studies the interaction of bacteria with viruses (phages) from the molecular to the environmental level. Major systems of study are the ocean and animal, including human, microbiomes.

Kelly Swarts

Associate Senior Lecturer, Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

publications

Research area

Kelly Swarts is a quantitative and computational geneticist focusing on understanding the genetic basis of complex traits using modern and ancient populations. Much of her past work has focused on understanding temperate adaptation in maize, including predicting flowering in 2,000 year old archaeological maize. Her program at SLU uses similar approaches to understand adaptation in conifers in light of climate change. While not focused on tool development, her group generates computational tools as needed to solve biological questions.

Qi Zhou

Professor, Life Science Institute, Zhejiang University
and Group Leader at Department of Molecular Evolution and Development, University of Vienna

publications

Research area

Qi Zhou is interested at using the cutting-edge sequencing technology and functional approaches to study evolution of animal sex chromosomes. His studied species include the classic genetic model Drosophila, as well as birds, snakes and turtles. The major questions that he has been working to answer include: How do different animal species determine their sex, and what are the transitional mechanisms between these different sex systems? How do the sex-determining chromosomes evolve in their genomic sequence and epigenomic regulation? What are the roles of small RNAs during the sex chromosome evolution? These questions are at the interface of evolution, development and molecular biology. On one hand, he harnesses classic Drosophila model species for deep functional characterization of sex-specific genes, while studying other non-cononical models reveals general principles of sex chromosome evolution across different species. He has uncovered that genes experience rapid functional degeneration and masculinization on the Drosophila Y chromosome of recent ages. He has also reconstructed a fine history of recombination loss between bird Z and W sex chromosomes, based on analyses of 50 avian genomes.