Antonis Rokas
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair, Department of Biological Sciences
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Director, Evolutionary Studies
Research in the Rokas lab focuses on the study of the DNA record to gain insight into the patterns and processes of evolution. We use a combination of computational and experimental approaches to understand the molecular foundations of the fungal lifestyle (using budding yeasts and Aspergillus fungi as model clades), the reconstruction of the tree of life (using the kingdoms of fungi and animals as models), and the evolution of mammalian pregnancy (with a particular interest in the evolution of gestation length).
Keywords: evolutionary genomics, molecular evolution, phylogenomics, fungi, mammals, tree of life, fungal diversity, natural selection