Research Interests
At the laboratory of evolutionary biology we mostly use genomic data to study the evolutionary history of life on Earth. However, our
interests are wider than that and we are particularly interested in the integration of genomic and palaeontological data (molecular
palaeobiology), in the phylogeny of extinct (like dinosaurs), and extant groups (like arthropods), and in the development of phylogenetic
methods that can be used in molecular and/or morphological phylogenetics.
We are involved in several international research collaborations, and we are part of stable collaborative networks with the Palaeobiology
and Biodiversity Research Group of the University of Bristol, with the Herpetology division of the Natural History Museum of London.
We are interested in using complete genomes in phylogenetics and to recover, and date the Tree of Life. We are also interested in the development of robust approaches to integrate complete genomes and results from shallow genomic experiments (like ESTs), and to study new areas of application of the phylogenomic methodos (e.g. pharmacophylogenomics).
Animal Evolution
We are interested in the application of phylogenetic and systems approaches to study the evolution of animals. We are particularly interested in integrating data from different sources, particularly genomic and palaeontological data, but also ecological, and biochemical data. Our research in animal evolution focus on the study of (1) the origin and evolution of the animal sensory functions, (2) Early animal evolution (i.e. the origin of the animal Phyla) and particularly the high level phylogeny of Arthropoda, and (3) herpetology and palaeoherpetology.
Phylogenetic Methods
We are interested in the development of supertree methods, methods to evaluate the support in supertrees, and methods for phylogenetic signal amplification and signal dissection. We are particularly interested in developing compatibility-based supertree and phylogenetic signal amplification methods.
Dr. Davide Pisani
Dr Davide Pisani's primary degree was awarded by the University of Parma (Italy), and his Ph.D by
the University of Bristol (UK). Dr Pisani's work is in the fields of theoretical phylogenetics,
bioinformatics, and at the interface between molecular evolution, palaeobiology and astrobiology
(exobiology). During his PhD he investigated some mathematical properties of existing supertree methods,
pinpointing weaknesses of these methods and proposing new approaches. He also led a team of palaeobiologists
to produce a genus level supertree for the Dinosauria, which still represents the most detailed phylogenetic
hypothesis for this group (follow the links to see media coverage of Dr Pisani's work by BBC-Web and the
New York Times). After obtaining his PhD. Dr Pisani worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the NASA
Astrobiology Institute (Pennsylvania State University lead team), and at the Natural History Museum (London).
Dr Pisani's work is currently funded by the European Union through the Marie Curie Intra-European Individual
Fellowship Scheme.
Dr. Stuart Longhorn
Dr. Stuart Longhorn is a IRCSET funded postdoctoral researcher (2008-2010) and he is investigating the evolution of the GPCR-mediated sensory functions (Vision and Olfaction) in Arthropoda.
Dr. Omar Rota-Stabelli
How and when the major groups of arthropods (insects, crustaceans, arachnids and co) originated? Why did the arthropods adapted so well to land that they now account for nearly 80% of animal biodiversity? What about their "gloriously obscure" ecdysozoan relatives? I address these questions by comparing genomes, developing new models of evolution, building phylogenies, and putting time back into trees.
Therese Holton
Therese Holton is an IRCSET funded PhD student (2007-2009). She is investigating the evolutionary history of the eukaryotes using complete genomes and EST data, the main aim of her project is to generate a framework to understand how much of the complexity of the animals genomes was inherited from their eukaryotic ancestors. This project is carried out in collaboration with Dr. Parkinson (Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto).
Lahcen Campbell
Lahcen Campbell is an SFI funded PhD student (2008-2010) who is working on Arthropod phylogenetics. The main goal of his progect is to test alternative hypotheses of Arthropod evolution (the Mandibulata and the Myriochelata hypotheses) using standard molecular data, and a variety of novel genomic markers (including microRNAs), and morphology. This is carried out in collaboration with Prof. Kevin Peterson (Dartmouth College) and Dr. Greg Edgecombe (NHM, London - Palaeontology)
Roberto Feuda
G-protein coupled receptor constitute a large, functionally diverse and evolutionary triumphant group of cell-surface proteins, involved in an extremely large number of cellular processes. For example they mediate vision, olfaction, chemotaxis, stimulation and regulation of All GPCRs have the same structure centred around a 7 trans membrane domain, however among the most divergent GPCR families there is no amino acid conservation, which suggest the superfamily could be composed by a set of unrelated families that converged on the same three dimensional structure. The aims of my project will be elucidate evolutionary aspects of this protein superfamily, using phylogenomic In particular we are interested in elucidating the tempo and mode of GPCR evolution and combine systems biology and evolutionary approaches to understand the origin the GPCR-mediated signalling pathways and their complexity.