Dr. Sarah Tishkoff | Tishkoff Lab

Sarah Tishkoff is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, holding appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences. She is also Director of the Penn Center for Global Genomics and Health Equity.

Dr. Tishkoff studies genomic and phenotypic variation in ethnically diverse Africans. Her research combines field work, laboratory research, and computational methods to examine African population history and how genetic variation can affect a wide range of traits – for example, why humans have different susceptibility to disease, how they metabolize drugs, and how they adapt through evolution.

Dr. Tishkoff is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of an NIH Pioneer Award, a David and Lucile Packard Career Award, a Burroughs/Wellcome Fund Career Award, an ASHG Curt Stern award, and a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) endowed chair. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering and the Board of Global Health at the National Academy of Sciences and is on the editorial boards at PLOS Genetics, Genome Research; G3 (Genes, Genomes, and Genetics);Cell.

Her research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Institute, and the American Diabetes Association.

Abstract:

Africa is the ancestral homeland of all modern human populations within the past 300,000 years.  It is also a region of tremendous cultural, linguistic, climatic, phenotypic and genetic diversity.   Despite the important role that African populations have played in human history, they remain one of the most underrepresented groups in human genomics studies. A comprehensive knowledge of patterns of variation in African genomes is critical for a deeper understanding of human evolutionary history and the identification of functionally important genetic variation that plays a role in both normal variation and disease risk.  Here I will describe our studies of genomic variation in ethnically and geographically diverse Africans in order to reconstruct human evolutionary history and identify candidate genes that play a role in adaptation to infectious disease, diet, high altitude, stature, and skin color. I will highlight recent research integrating data from a genome wide association study of skin pigmentation in Africans and scans of natural selection from whole genome sequencing. Combining high-throughput reporter assays, Hi-C, CRISPR-based editing, and melanin content assays, we identified novel regulatory variants that impact melanin levels in vitro and modulate human skin color variation. Additionally, we identified a novel gene regulating pigmentation by impacting genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation and melanogenesis. These results provide insights into the mechanisms underlying human skin color diversity and adaptive evolution.

Watch the seminar here!

 Dr. Sarah Tishkoff | Tishkoff Lab

Sarah Tishkoff is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, holding appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences. She is also Director of the Penn Center for Global Genomics and Health Equity.

Dr. Tishkoff studies genomic and phenotypic variation in ethnically diverse Africans. Her research combines field work, laboratory research, and computational methods to examine African population history and how genetic variation can affect a wide range of traits – for example, why humans have different susceptibility to disease, how they metabolize drugs, and how they adapt through evolution.

Dr. Tishkoff is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of an NIH Pioneer Award, a David and Lucile Packard Career Award, a Burroughs/Wellcome Fund Career Award, an ASHG Curt Stern award, and a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) endowed chair. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering and the Board of Global Health at the National Academy of Sciences and is on the editorial boards at PLOS Genetics, Genome Research; G3 (Genes, Genomes, and Genetics);Cell.

Her research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Institute, and the American Diabetes Association.

Abstract:

Africa is the ancestral homeland of all modern human populations within the past 300,000 years.  It is also a region of tremendous cultural, linguistic, climatic, phenotypic and genetic diversity.   Despite the important role that African populations have played in human history, they remain one of the most underrepresented groups in human genomics studies. A comprehensive knowledge of patterns of variation in African genomes is critical for a deeper understanding of human evolutionary history and the identification of functionally important genetic variation that plays a role in both normal variation and disease risk.  Here I will describe our studies of genomic variation in ethnically and geographically diverse Africans in order to reconstruct human evolutionary history and identify candidate genes that play a role in adaptation to infectious disease, diet, high altitude, stature, and skin color. I will highlight recent research integrating data from a genome wide association study of skin pigmentation in Africans and scans of natural selection from whole genome sequencing. Combining high-throughput reporter assays, Hi-C, CRISPR-based editing, and melanin content assays, we identified novel regulatory variants that impact melanin levels in vitro and modulate human skin color variation. Additionally, we identified a novel gene regulating pigmentation by impacting genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation and melanogenesis. These results provide insights into the mechanisms underlying human skin color diversity and adaptive evolution.

Watch the seminar here!

 Dr. Sarah Tishkoff | Tishkoff Lab

Sarah Tishkoff is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, holding appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences. She is also Director of the Penn Center for Global Genomics and Health Equity.

Dr. Tishkoff studies genomic and phenotypic variation in ethnically diverse Africans. Her research combines field work, laboratory research, and computational methods to examine African population history and how genetic variation can affect a wide range of traits – for example, why humans have different susceptibility to disease, how they metabolize drugs, and how they adapt through evolution.

Dr. Tishkoff is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of an NIH Pioneer Award, a David and Lucile Packard Career Award, a Burroughs/Wellcome Fund Career Award, an ASHG Curt Stern award, and a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) endowed chair. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering and the Board of Global Health at the National Academy of Sciences and is on the editorial boards at PLOS Genetics, Genome Research; G3 (Genes, Genomes, and Genetics);Cell.

Her research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Institute, and the American Diabetes Association.

Abstract:

Africa is the ancestral homeland of all modern human populations within the past 300,000 years.  It is also a region of tremendous cultural, linguistic, climatic, phenotypic and genetic diversity.   Despite the important role that African populations have played in human history, they remain one of the most underrepresented groups in human genomics studies. A comprehensive knowledge of patterns of variation in African genomes is critical for a deeper understanding of human evolutionary history and the identification of functionally important genetic variation that plays a role in both normal variation and disease risk.  Here I will describe our studies of genomic variation in ethnically and geographically diverse Africans in order to reconstruct human evolutionary history and identify candidate genes that play a role in adaptation to infectious disease, diet, high altitude, stature, and skin color. I will highlight recent research integrating data from a genome wide association study of skin pigmentation in Africans and scans of natural selection from whole genome sequencing. Combining high-throughput reporter assays, Hi-C, CRISPR-based editing, and melanin content assays, we identified novel regulatory variants that impact melanin levels in vitro and modulate human skin color variation. Additionally, we identified a novel gene regulating pigmentation by impacting genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation and melanogenesis. These results provide insights into the mechanisms underlying human skin color diversity and adaptive evolution.

Watch the seminar here!

 Dr. Sarah Tishkoff | Tishkoff Lab

Sarah Tishkoff is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, holding appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences. She is also Director of the Penn Center for Global Genomics and Health Equity.

Dr. Tishkoff studies genomic and phenotypic variation in ethnically diverse Africans. Her research combines field work, laboratory research, and computational methods to examine African population history and how genetic variation can affect a wide range of traits – for example, why humans have different susceptibility to disease, how they metabolize drugs, and how they adapt through evolution.

Dr. Tishkoff is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of an NIH Pioneer Award, a David and Lucile Packard Career Award, a Burroughs/Wellcome Fund Career Award, an ASHG Curt Stern award, and a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) endowed chair. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering and the Board of Global Health at the National Academy of Sciences and is on the editorial boards at PLOS Genetics, Genome Research; G3 (Genes, Genomes, and Genetics);Cell.

Her research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Institute, and the American Diabetes Association.

Abstract:

Africa is the ancestral homeland of all modern human populations within the past 300,000 years.  It is also a region of tremendous cultural, linguistic, climatic, phenotypic and genetic diversity.   Despite the important role that African populations have played in human history, they remain one of the most underrepresented groups in human genomics studies. A comprehensive knowledge of patterns of variation in African genomes is critical for a deeper understanding of human evolutionary history and the identification of functionally important genetic variation that plays a role in both normal variation and disease risk.  Here I will describe our studies of genomic variation in ethnically and geographically diverse Africans in order to reconstruct human evolutionary history and identify candidate genes that play a role in adaptation to infectious disease, diet, high altitude, stature, and skin color. I will highlight recent research integrating data from a genome wide association study of skin pigmentation in Africans and scans of natural selection from whole genome sequencing. Combining high-throughput reporter assays, Hi-C, CRISPR-based editing, and melanin content assays, we identified novel regulatory variants that impact melanin levels in vitro and modulate human skin color variation. Additionally, we identified a novel gene regulating pigmentation by impacting genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation and melanogenesis. These results provide insights into the mechanisms underlying human skin color diversity and adaptive evolution.

Watch the seminar here!

 Dr. Sarah Tishkoff | Tishkoff Lab

Sarah Tishkoff is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, holding appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences. She is also Director of the Penn Center for Global Genomics and Health Equity.

Dr. Tishkoff studies genomic and phenotypic variation in ethnically diverse Africans. Her research combines field work, laboratory research, and computational methods to examine African population history and how genetic variation can affect a wide range of traits – for example, why humans have different susceptibility to disease, how they metabolize drugs, and how they adapt through evolution.

Dr. Tishkoff is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of an NIH Pioneer Award, a David and Lucile Packard Career Award, a Burroughs/Wellcome Fund Career Award, an ASHG Curt Stern award, and a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) endowed chair. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering and the Board of Global Health at the National Academy of Sciences and is on the editorial boards at PLOS Genetics, Genome Research; G3 (Genes, Genomes, and Genetics);Cell.

Her research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Institute, and the American Diabetes Association.

Abstract:

Africa is the ancestral homeland of all modern human populations within the past 300,000 years.  It is also a region of tremendous cultural, linguistic, climatic, phenotypic and genetic diversity.   Despite the important role that African populations have played in human history, they remain one of the most underrepresented groups in human genomics studies. A comprehensive knowledge of patterns of variation in African genomes is critical for a deeper understanding of human evolutionary history and the identification of functionally important genetic variation that plays a role in both normal variation and disease risk.  Here I will describe our studies of genomic variation in ethnically and geographically diverse Africans in order to reconstruct human evolutionary history and identify candidate genes that play a role in adaptation to infectious disease, diet, high altitude, stature, and skin color. I will highlight recent research integrating data from a genome wide association study of skin pigmentation in Africans and scans of natural selection from whole genome sequencing. Combining high-throughput reporter assays, Hi-C, CRISPR-based editing, and melanin content assays, we identified novel regulatory variants that impact melanin levels in vitro and modulate human skin color variation. Additionally, we identified a novel gene regulating pigmentation by impacting genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation and melanogenesis. These results provide insights into the mechanisms underlying human skin color diversity and adaptive evolution.

Watch the seminar here!

Dr. Tara Smiley | Smiley Lab

Bio:

I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in how climate and landscape history shape the diversity, biogeography, and ecological structure of mammalian faunas across spatio-temporal scales. I test hypotheses about how changes in climate, tectonic activity, topographic complexity, and habitat heterogeneity impact communities and ecological processes at local scales and govern diversity at regional scales. To do so, I use the fossil record to investigate diversity patterns, macroevolutionary processes, and paleoecology, focusing on the history of small mammals during the Cenozoic. My work on the past is conducted in parallel with investigations of modern and historical small-mammal populations across broad climatic and environmental gradients today.

My research group integrates fieldwork, specimen-based research, and quantitative paleobiology. Primary tools of our research include stable isotope ecology and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, analysis of trait variation, diversification analysis, and coupling of geological and biological modeling approaches. We work in western North America and in the East African Rift, both tectonically active and dynamic landscapes with high species richness today and in the past. 



Abstract: 

Mountains across the globe are biodiversity hotspots for many different groups of plants and animals; however, the deep-time relationship between mountain building and biodiversity remains elusive and requires integration across disciplines in geosciences, paleontology, and biology. When and how did these hotspots form? What role do landscape and climate dynamics play in eco-evolutionary processes? Using modern and fossil records, as well as empirical and quantitative approaches, my research program investigates how the biodiversity of mammals has been influenced by tectonic and climate interactions that shape mountain landscapes and generate topographic and climatic gradients. In this presentation, I will focus on the diversification history and faunal structure of mammals in the Basin and Range Province of western North America across the Neogene, highlighting the role of tectonic extension and global warming during the Miocene Climate Optimum (17-14 million years ago) at multiple spatial scales. I will also share new research from coupled landscape-biotic evolution models to understand how tectonic uplift may both generate and preserve evidence of montane biodiversity hotspots in the fossil record.

Watch the seminar here!

Dr. Tara Smiley | Smiley Lab

Bio:

I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in how climate and landscape history shape the diversity, biogeography, and ecological structure of mammalian faunas across spatio-temporal scales. I test hypotheses about how changes in climate, tectonic activity, topographic complexity, and habitat heterogeneity impact communities and ecological processes at local scales and govern diversity at regional scales. To do so, I use the fossil record to investigate diversity patterns, macroevolutionary processes, and paleoecology, focusing on the history of small mammals during the Cenozoic. My work on the past is conducted in parallel with investigations of modern and historical small-mammal populations across broad climatic and environmental gradients today.

My research group integrates fieldwork, specimen-based research, and quantitative paleobiology. Primary tools of our research include stable isotope ecology and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, analysis of trait variation, diversification analysis, and coupling of geological and biological modeling approaches. We work in western North America and in the East African Rift, both tectonically active and dynamic landscapes with high species richness today and in the past. 



Abstract: 

Mountains across the globe are biodiversity hotspots for many different groups of plants and animals; however, the deep-time relationship between mountain building and biodiversity remains elusive and requires integration across disciplines in geosciences, paleontology, and biology. When and how did these hotspots form? What role do landscape and climate dynamics play in eco-evolutionary processes? Using modern and fossil records, as well as empirical and quantitative approaches, my research program investigates how the biodiversity of mammals has been influenced by tectonic and climate interactions that shape mountain landscapes and generate topographic and climatic gradients. In this presentation, I will focus on the diversification history and faunal structure of mammals in the Basin and Range Province of western North America across the Neogene, highlighting the role of tectonic extension and global warming during the Miocene Climate Optimum (17-14 million years ago) at multiple spatial scales. I will also share new research from coupled landscape-biotic evolution models to understand how tectonic uplift may both generate and preserve evidence of montane biodiversity hotspots in the fossil record.

Watch the seminar here!

Dr. Tara Smiley | Smiley Lab

Bio:

I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in how climate and landscape history shape the diversity, biogeography, and ecological structure of mammalian faunas across spatio-temporal scales. I test hypotheses about how changes in climate, tectonic activity, topographic complexity, and habitat heterogeneity impact communities and ecological processes at local scales and govern diversity at regional scales. To do so, I use the fossil record to investigate diversity patterns, macroevolutionary processes, and paleoecology, focusing on the history of small mammals during the Cenozoic. My work on the past is conducted in parallel with investigations of modern and historical small-mammal populations across broad climatic and environmental gradients today.

My research group integrates fieldwork, specimen-based research, and quantitative paleobiology. Primary tools of our research include stable isotope ecology and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, analysis of trait variation, diversification analysis, and coupling of geological and biological modeling approaches. We work in western North America and in the East African Rift, both tectonically active and dynamic landscapes with high species richness today and in the past. 



Abstract: 

Mountains across the globe are biodiversity hotspots for many different groups of plants and animals; however, the deep-time relationship between mountain building and biodiversity remains elusive and requires integration across disciplines in geosciences, paleontology, and biology. When and how did these hotspots form? What role do landscape and climate dynamics play in eco-evolutionary processes? Using modern and fossil records, as well as empirical and quantitative approaches, my research program investigates how the biodiversity of mammals has been influenced by tectonic and climate interactions that shape mountain landscapes and generate topographic and climatic gradients. In this presentation, I will focus on the diversification history and faunal structure of mammals in the Basin and Range Province of western North America across the Neogene, highlighting the role of tectonic extension and global warming during the Miocene Climate Optimum (17-14 million years ago) at multiple spatial scales. I will also share new research from coupled landscape-biotic evolution models to understand how tectonic uplift may both generate and preserve evidence of montane biodiversity hotspots in the fossil record.

Watch the seminar here!

Dr. Tara Smiley | Smiley Lab

Bio:

I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in how climate and landscape history shape the diversity, biogeography, and ecological structure of mammalian faunas across spatio-temporal scales. I test hypotheses about how changes in climate, tectonic activity, topographic complexity, and habitat heterogeneity impact communities and ecological processes at local scales and govern diversity at regional scales. To do so, I use the fossil record to investigate diversity patterns, macroevolutionary processes, and paleoecology, focusing on the history of small mammals during the Cenozoic. My work on the past is conducted in parallel with investigations of modern and historical small-mammal populations across broad climatic and environmental gradients today.

My research group integrates fieldwork, specimen-based research, and quantitative paleobiology. Primary tools of our research include stable isotope ecology and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, analysis of trait variation, diversification analysis, and coupling of geological and biological modeling approaches. We work in western North America and in the East African Rift, both tectonically active and dynamic landscapes with high species richness today and in the past. 



Abstract: 

Mountains across the globe are biodiversity hotspots for many different groups of plants and animals; however, the deep-time relationship between mountain building and biodiversity remains elusive and requires integration across disciplines in geosciences, paleontology, and biology. When and how did these hotspots form? What role do landscape and climate dynamics play in eco-evolutionary processes? Using modern and fossil records, as well as empirical and quantitative approaches, my research program investigates how the biodiversity of mammals has been influenced by tectonic and climate interactions that shape mountain landscapes and generate topographic and climatic gradients. In this presentation, I will focus on the diversification history and faunal structure of mammals in the Basin and Range Province of western North America across the Neogene, highlighting the role of tectonic extension and global warming during the Miocene Climate Optimum (17-14 million years ago) at multiple spatial scales. I will also share new research from coupled landscape-biotic evolution models to understand how tectonic uplift may both generate and preserve evidence of montane biodiversity hotspots in the fossil record.

Watch the seminar here!

Ned Dochtermann | Dochtermann Lab

Abstract:

While behavioral syndromes are frequently argued to represent an optimal outcome of correlated selection, they also have the potential to constrain evolutionary responses. Via intraspecific and interspecific comparisons we attempted to determine whether behavioral variation was distributed in a manner consistent with either (or both) of these explanations. We compared the distribution of genetic variation across four populations of field crickets (Gryllus integer) and for seven behavioral measures. The distribution and orientation of genetic variation was conserved across populations and divergence among populations was constrained to a shared direction in multivariate space. We then compared the distribution of behavioral variation across five species of crickets and identified a strong phylogenetic signal. Combined, these intra- and interspecific comparisons are consistent with behavioral syndromes acting as constraints on evolutionary outcomes. Finally, in a natural population of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) we compared the orientation of behavioral variation with the direction of selection acting on the population. We found that the distribution of behavioral variation was inconsistent with our a priori predictions. These three independent results suggest that intuitive adaptive explanations may be insufficient to explain the ubiquity of behavioral syndromes.

Check out the seminar here!