People
Research: The McCouch lab investigates the extent, distribution, and phenotypic consequences of natural variation in rice, with emphasis on the genetic basis of complex traits including disease resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, maturity and yield, and grain quality. She works closely with gene banks to develop pre-breeding resources, and collaborates with breeders, most notably in developing countries, to implement precision breeding in rice improvement.
Department: Computational Biology
Research: We are interested in a broad range of topics in evolutionary biology and population genetics. A particular focus of the lab lies in studying cases of rapid adaptation that allow us to observe evolution in real-time and sometimes even repeatedly. Examples of such rapid adaptations include the evolution of resistance to pesticides and drugs, and the rapid adaptive responses observed in laboratory evolution experiments. Research projects in the lab employ a wide spectrum of computational and analytical approaches in concert with the analysis of large-scale population genomic data. We also perform experiments in fruit flies to study the population dynamics of CRISPR gene drives, which promise a mechanism for rapidly spreading alleles in a population.
Department: Computational Biology
Research: The primary focus of my research group is developing computational statistics and machine learning methodology to answer questions about complex phenotypes. Among other contributions, our research has produced new methodology now applied to the analysis of Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) data, to identify expression Quantitative Trait Loci (eQTL), and for eQTL based network discovery. My group also collaborates extensively on the analysis of genomic and other big biological data types collected by scientists working on both basic and applied problems in medicine and beyond.
Research: Metabolic pathways in plants are quite dynamic, resulting in production of over a million metabolites across ~300,000 estimated plant species. These metabolic pathways are in a constant state of innovation due to gene duplication, transcriptional divergence, enzyme promiscuity etc. How have specific metabolic pathways originated and diversified? What is the role of positive selection and genetic drift in shaping metabolic diversity? How does enzyme promiscuity influence evolution of specialized metabolic pathways? We are investigating these and other allied questions using evolutionary approaches, by performing comparative analyses of plant genomes, transcriptomes and metabolomes. Research in the Moghe lab is highly integrative and comprised of both computational and wet-lab approaches.
Department: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Entomology
Research: Research in our lab focuses on the symbiotic factors that drive speciation, adaptation, and evolutionary diversification. We use ants and other insects to tease apart the factors that influence patterns of evolution – from the rise of the flowering plants, symbioses ants have with other insects and plants, and their gut-associated microbial community are all potential underlying factors that may have facilitated their ecological dominance in almost all terrestrial ecosystems. In addition we are interested in how biogeography, climate change and invasive ants have and will continue to affect the evolutionary processes that generate and sustain high biological diversity in tropical ecosystems and other habitats. Furthermore we are interested in how we can use molecular methods, next-generation sequencing, and comparative genomics with field-based research to study biodiversity across scales.
Department: Computational Biology
Research: Shaila Musharoff is a human complex trait geneticist, who will join the department of Computational Biology at Cornell in January 2023. Dr. Musharoff received a PhD from Stanford working with Carlos Bustamante, did postdoctoral work with Noah Zaitlen at UCSD, and is currently a postdoc with Jonathan Pritchard at Stanford. Their work focuses on disparities in personal genomics, the impact of admixture on complex disease risk, and methods of inference of genetic risk, including polygenic scoring.
Department: Entomology
Research: Dr. O'Grady's research focuses understanding the patterns and processes that generate and maintain biological diversity. Research projects in his laboratory cover a range of biological disciplines including morphology and taxonomy, phylogenetic systematics, population genetics, molecular evolution and genomics to examine the evolutionary history of endemic Hawaiian Insects, particularly flies in the family Drosophilidae.
Department: Nutritional Sciences
Research: Our goal is to elucidate the interactions between host genetics, dietary intake, and gut microbes in order to benefit host health. Our current projects focus on (1) optimizing dietary fiber intake to prevent diabetes and hyperlipidemia and (2) identifying factors underlying pathogenic biofilm formation in the mouth. Our research is interdisciplinary; we combine knowledge from genetics, nutrition, physiology, microbiology, and computational biology. Our findings could help to develop a systems biology approach to precision nutrition to assist in treating metabolic disorders or decreasing disease risk.
Department: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Lab: Reed lab and members
Research: We seek to understand the genesis of biodiversity through our work on butterfly color patterns. Inspired by nature’s own palette of variation, our organism-centered research applies the latest tools in developmental genetics and molecular biology to understand how color patterns originated and how they diversify in nature. We are interested in topics ranging from the genetic basis of mimicry, to how butterflies change their color patterns according to seasons, to the origin of color itself.
Department: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Research: We focus on the evolutionary biology of several species of small mammals as they are perfect for understanding how species evolve, colonize new areas, and adapt to the environment. Additionally, we use them as trackers of human history and as models for conservation.