Present Members
Bill Cresko, Principal Investigator
I am a geneticist who specializes in quantitative evolutionary genomics. Our laboratory studies the developmental genetic and genomic basis of evolution in natural populations using a variety of laboratory and field approaches tightly connected to innovation in genomics and quantitative biology. Bill Cresko Bio
Susie Bassham, Senior Research Associate
What are the developmental and genetic bases of evolution in natural populations? Using a variety of molecular genetic tools, I try to uncover genome-scale patterns that underlie phenotypic variation in wild populations of fish, and to direct this knowledge to the study of developmental pathways that contribute to novel or modified morphologies. Susie Bassham Bio
Mark Currey, Senior Research Assistant
I’m interested in understanding the vast variety of life. How is morphological variation, seen in populations of the same species, partitioned among different environments and what are the genetic and genomic factors associated with this partitioning? To get at this I’m investigating the distribution of populations of threespine stickleback in Oregon, looking for patterns of association between phenotype and environment, and ultimately querying the genomes of these populations to associate patterns we see at the phenotypic level with patterns at the genetic and genomic level.
Mark Currey Bio
Emily Beck, Research Associate
I am a geneticist with a long-standing interest in how genetic interactions influence evolutionary dynamics and how those dynamics impact disease states. My doctoral thesis work primarily focused on mitochondrial and nuclear genome interactions as they relate to speciation in Drosophila. As a postdoctoral research fellow, I significantly extended my experiences to focus on host-microbe interactions and their broader influences on progression of disease states in outbred threespine stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus).
Clay Small, Research Associate
The characterization of transcriptomic phenotypes using RNA-seq is a promising approach for understanding how genomes serve as conduits for the origin, maintenance and modification of ecologically relevant traits. To this end, I study the male pregnancy transcriptome in syngnathid fishes, and how genotype-by-environment interactions affect the microbe-associated gastrointestinal transcriptome of threespine stickleback.
Hope Healey, Ph.D. Student
I am interested in the developmental genetic basis of novel teleost morphologies. In particular, I am fascinated by syngnathids due to their highly modified traits and alterations in key developmental gene families. I hope to understand how gene regulatory networks have been modified in syngnathids to create unique morphologies such as their derived craniofacial features. Hope Healey Bio
Shannon Snyder, Ph.D. Student
My dissertation work is focused on uncovering the molecular mechanisms governing within and between generational phenotypic plasticity. By capitalizing on the invasive water flea, Daphnia lumholtzi’s, dramatic morphological response to predation, I am working to disentangle the molecular and epigenetic mechanisms underlying this plastic response and its persistence over generational time.
Micah Woods, Post-baccalaureate Scholar
I currently assist with a range of projects throughout the lab. Before my role as a Post-Baccalaureate Scholar, I worked in the Cresko Lab as a Knight Campus Undergraduate Scholar under the mentorship of Hope Healey. In this role, I used in situ hybridization to explore the expression of key genes involved in the craniofacial development of zebrafish, stickleback, and pipefish. While as an undergraduate student, I also wrote, defended, and earned the Robert D. Clark Award for my thesis in philosophy of biology.
Past Members
Postdocs
Kat Milligan-Myhre
Assistant Professor at University of Alaska, Anchorage - Website
Ann Petersen
Assistant Professor at Oregon State University, Cascades - Website
Julian Catchen
Assistant Professor at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign - Website
Paul Hohenlohe
Assistant Professor at University of Idaho - Website
Martin Stervander, Postdoctoral Scholar
Hannah Tavalire, Postdoctoral Scholar
Graduate Students
Kristin Sikkink
Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Minnesota
Kristin Alligood
Research Associate Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Thom Nelson
Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Montana
Sophia Frantz, Ph.D. Student
Allison Fuiten
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Oregon Health and Science University
Emily Lescak
Research Associate, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Andrew Nishida
Computational Scientist, Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences
Alida Gerristen
Postdoctoral Research Associate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Conor O’Brien
Senior Consultant at Deloitte Consulting
Quick Yeates-Burghart
Robert Steury
Talent at Steury Stonework and Design
Research Assistants
Kate Ituarte
Resident, Harvard University
Nicholas Stiffler
Software Developer, University of Oregon
Jason Sydes
Research Assistant, Postlethwait Lab - University of Oregon
Roberta Torunsky
Founder of Healing Alma
Nicole Nishimura
Manager at Sessrumnir LLC
Joseph Dunham
Frances Sung
Research Associate, UCLA
Undergraduate Researchers
Emily Niebergall, Undergraduate Researcher; Clark Honors College
Nia Harper, Undergraduate Researcher
Jade Kast, Undergraduate Researcher
Jack Peplinksi
John Crandall
Sophie Sichel
Erik Parker
Shira Mali
John Letaw
Maya Rommwatt
Taylor Wilson
Steve Perry
Ryan Bourdo
James Bolle
Larissa Unruh
Jenna Wood
Emily Armstrong Buck
Jessica Ava
Emma Kostin-Conley
Caroline Emui-Wei
Clayton Merz
Shannon Cannon
Jennea Wood
Sabbatical Visitors
Beren Robinson
Bob Kaplan