Evolution and Development Group

Overview

Our research focuses on the evolution of genome organisation and gene regulatory networks (GRNs) with the purpose of contributing to the question of how novel characters and complexity arise.

We study:

how gene and whole genome duplications (WGDs) increase gene number, modify gene order via the rearrangements they trigger and promote speciation
the degree of flexibility within a given regulatory module and in extent in a gene network during evolution through the study of the endomesoderm network in sea urchin
how genomic rearrangements and copy number variation contribute to disease e.g. autism. Develop autism model systems

Regulatory Element Evolution	Gene Regulatory Networks in Sea Urchin and Ciona	Sea Urchin Database
Autism	Gene Regulatory Network Modelling	Rearrangement rates