Current Projects

Latinx indigenous Ancestry

Many of us who identify as Latinx in the United States share indigenous ancestry from the Americas. However, this ancestry is typically ambiguously defined as Native American. We aim to more precisely reconnect this genetic ancestry to the ancient civilizations that flourished in Meso and South America before the arrival of Europeans.

CANCER PLASTICITY

The ability of various cancers to rapidly evolve and, in turn, change their plastic configurations to evade the immune system remains poorly understood. By taking a computational evolutionary approach to the problem, combined with single-cell sequencing technologies, we aim to link genomic evolution with larger changes to the epigenetic repertoire avilable to cancer cell subpopulations, as they evolve in the tumor microenvironment.

The ANDES

Understanding the origins and adaptive evolutionary histories of the people of the Andes.

The Effects of Colonialism in the Americas

Understanding how the people of the Americas rapidly adapted to the extreme environmental changes brought on by European colonization--including disease, changes in social structure, and the devastation of warfare. 

ARTificial Selection

Understanding the genetic components behind specific dog breed behaviors.