Departments of Anthropology and Biology

Interdisciplinary Graduate programs in Bioinformatics & Genomics and Ecology

Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics

The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences

Pennsylvania State University

WHAT WE DO:

Anthropological and primate genomics
Paleogenomics (ancient DNA)
Human body size evolution
Human parasite evolution
Human impacts on non-human evolutionary biology
Human evolutionary medicine

Projects in our lab are broadly motivated by hypotheses about human evolutionary ecology -- how we have adapted to our variable or changing environments -- and how human behavior has affected the evolutionary biology of other species sharing our ecosystems. Most of our projects have major genomics laboratory and computational components. Some projects involve the collection of complementary ecological data at sites in Madagascar, Uganda, and Peru. When possible, we incorporate functional analyses into our studies, for example via experiments with parasites and cell lines (including with induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs). In addition to our modern DNA lab, we have a separate ancient DNA (paleogenomics) lab where we work with the bones and teeth of individuals from extinct species or from prehistoric populations of extant species. Our research is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. See our Projects page for details.

Students are welcome to design studies related to the lab’s current projects, or to develop new programs of research that address distinct hypotheses concerning human or non-human primate evolution. Prospective graduate students may apply through the Anthropology, Biology, Ecology, or Bioinformatics & Genomics programs, depending on their background and interests.

Batwa woman and child in Kanungu, Uganda

Propithecus tattersalli sifaka in Daraina, Madagasar

Near Kianjavato, Madagascar

Batwa man climbing tree in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda

Subfossil Archaeolemur skulls

Young cattle (omby) herder, near Mangaoko (Diego), Madagascar

Batwa woman and child viewing an illustration by Alex Cagan of results from our Perry et al. 2014 study, when we visited the participant communities to present and discuss those results.

Hand of a greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus), Kianjavato, Madagascar

Young girl from Ambodivandrika (Vatomandry), Madagascar

Humeri from the extant aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis; top) and the extinct giant aye-aye (Daubentonia robusta; bottom)

Batwa women and child, Kanungu, Uganda

Extinct giant elephant bird (Aepyornis spp.) eggshell fragments from near Manombo, north of Toliara, Madagascar.

Red-tailed monkey (Cercopithecus ascanius), Buhoma, Uganda

Batwa woman and child, Kanungu, Uganda

Partial Megaladapis mandible. This was not even the largest extinct subfossil lemur!

A drawer of mandibles from the extinct, giant lemur Megaladapis, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar

Human head lice (Pediculus humanus capitus) raised on an artificial rearing system in the lab of our collaborator John Clark, UMass Amherst.

Gnaw marks on dead tree from aye-aye foraging for the larvae of wood-boring insects, Daraina, Madagascar

Batwa woman, Kanungu, Uganda

Participants in the inaugural Genetics and Bioinformatics Workshop in Antananarivo, Madagascsar, June 2017. These workshops are being led by our lab, and represent a partnership with the Habaka Madagascar Innovation Hub.

Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) at Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve, Madagascar.

Encapsulated cysts of the human tapeworm Taenia solium, after their removal from pig muscle tissue, from our functional genomics work in Peru

Skull from a juvenile Palaeopropithecus extinct subfossil lemur

Malagasy children near Ambalavao, Madagascar

Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) on cliff near Ambalavao, Madagascar

Young boys from Ambodivandrika (Vatomandry), Madagascar

Early morning mist outside Ambalavao, Madagascar, on our 2016 team's drive from Antananarivo to Toliara.

3D model of a sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) femur, based on high-resolution 3D scan data generated with the Artec Space Spider, by Alexis Sullivan.

Departments of Anthropology and Biology

Interdisciplinary Graduate programs in Bioinformatics & Genomics and Ecology

Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics

The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences

Pennsylvania State University

WHAT WE DO:

Anthropological and primate genomics

Paleogenomics (ancient DNA)

Human body size evolution

Human parasite evolution

Human impacts on non-human evolutionary biology

Human evolutionary medicine