Buffalo Evolutionary and Anthropological Genomics Laboratory (BEAGL)

Investigating the evolutionary history of genetic variations to explain biological diversity and disease in modern and ancient human populations.

WHAT WE DO

We investigate the contributions of genomic structural variations—beyond single nucleotide variations—to human evolution, combining tools from genomics, functional genetics, anthropology, and evolutionary biology to mechanistically link genetic variation to phenotypic diversity.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Mutation

What different mutational mechanisms shape the size, functional impact, and genomic distribution of different types of genomic structural variation?

Evolutionary Process

What evolutionary processes maintain (ancient) functional, structural variants that we share with Neanderthals?

Function

How do different types of SVs affect biological function at the genetic, transcriptomic, cellular, and organismal levels?

Our work has been picked up by several press outlets. See latest.

We helped Atilla lab to analyze transcriptomics data to investigate the role of lipid pathways in necroptosis. This paper is recently published in RSC Chemical Biology and they wrote a really nice blog post. Read

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X’s lab led this study on extensive long-read sequencing of multiple bird genomes and follow-up comparative/functional analysis to find interesting overlap between structural variation hotspots and piRNA hotspots. The evolutionary implications of this overlap has

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The Alcobaça archaeological site, in which the skeletal remains of Brazil-12 (northeast Brazil) were unearthed. (Photo credit: Henry Lavalle, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco and Ana Nascimento, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco)

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If you follow our work, you may have remembered that we have published a paper on the curious evolution of genetic variation in the growth hormone receptor. Briefly, we have found that a deletion of

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Petar Pajic led this project that we designed with Stefan Ruhl Laboratory on how mucin proteins have evolved. The roles of mucins in different biological processes are becoming more appreciated recently in both evolutionary and

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We are delighted to have the GLAM-Evogen symposium back in person. It will be held on August 13, 2022, at the University at Buffalo. The keynote speaker will be Dr. April Wei from Cornell University.

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Izzy Starr (they/them/their) led this project along with our collaborators Ani Sinha, and Kristina Seiffert to investigate the relationship between recent evolution and immune-mediated trends in human skin. Our major finding is that there are

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Our work has been picked up by several press outlets. See latest.

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August 11, 2023

We helped Atilla lab to analyze transcriptomics data to investigate the role of lipid pathways in necroptosis. This paper is recently published in RSC Chemical Biology and they wrote a really nice blog post. Read

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July 1, 2023

X’s lab led this study on extensive long-read sequencing of multiple bird genomes and follow-up comparative/functional analysis to find interesting overlap between structural variation hotspots and piRNA hotspots. The evolutionary implications of this overlap has

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June 19, 2023

The Alcobaça archaeological site, in which the skeletal remains of Brazil-12 (northeast Brazil) were unearthed. (Photo credit: Henry Lavalle, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco and Ana Nascimento, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco)

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January 27, 2023

If you follow our work, you may have remembered that we have published a paper on the curious evolution of genetic variation in the growth hormone receptor. Briefly, we have found that a deletion of

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August 26, 2022

Petar Pajic led this project that we designed with Stefan Ruhl Laboratory on how mucin proteins have evolved. The roles of mucins in different biological processes are becoming more appreciated recently in both evolutionary and

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June 1, 2022

We are delighted to have the GLAM-Evogen symposium back in person. It will be held on August 13, 2022, at the University at Buffalo. The keynote speaker will be Dr. April Wei from Cornell University.

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January 4, 2022

Izzy Starr (they/them/their) led this project along with our collaborators Ani Sinha, and Kristina Seiffert to investigate the relationship between recent evolution and immune-mediated trends in human skin. Our major finding is that there are

Data and Code

Visit our GitHub repo for codes, applications, and datasets. The links to primary datasets can be found in the relevant publications.

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