J. Andrew DeWoody

Members of the DeWoody lab group

Joe Busch  PhD Student

Joe is interested in population genetics, and is currently studying historic bottlenecks in kangaroo rats (click here for his 2007 paper in Molecular Ecology) and their MHC genes.

Johel Chaves-Campos   PhD Student

Johel is a PhD student with Kerry Rabenold in the Biology department, but is conducting his molecular research in our lab on ocellated antbirds.   Click here for Johel's 2008 paper (in Molecular Ecology) on the spatial distribution of relatives in these army-ant-following birds.

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Jenny Cooper   PhD Student

Jenny is a PhD student with Peter Waser in the Biology department, but is conducting her molecular research in our lab on collared peccaries (better known around here as javelina).

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Anna Fahey   PhD Student

Anna is a new addition to the lab from the PULSe program.  Anna is developing a collaboration with Bob Ricklefs (UM St. Louis) and Steve Latta (National Aviary) on the avifauna of Hispaniola.

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Jamie Griggs   MS Student

Jamie is following up on Dave Glista's project (see Former Students, below).  She is interested in quantifying and ultimately mitigating vertebrate roadkill; Jamie will use mtDNA sequences to help identify small carcasses (e.g., frogs).

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Matt Hale Postdoc

Matt recently completed his PhD with Jon Slate in the UK, and is now studying the evolution of sex determination genes in lake sturgeon using massively parallel sequencing approaches (Roche 454 sequencing of cDNA libraries).

Cory McCormick  Lab Technician

Cory McCormick is a technician working on kangaroo rat microsatellites, lake sturgeon, and salamanders. Cory is also a PhD student studying Philosophy of Science!

Jennifer McCreight   Undergraduate Fellow

Jennifer is an undergraduate researcher who began in the lab as a Howard Hughes Fellow (and winner of the Outstanding Freshman in Biology award!).  She is now supported as an FNR Signature Area Fellow in Ecological Genetics, and is working on historical demography in kangaroo rats using mtDNA sequences and microsatellites.

Former Students and Postdocs

David Bos   Postdoc

David B. was a postdoc in the lab from 2003-2007, and his interests are primarily in molecular evolution of MHC genes and historical demography.  David is now a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Biological Sciences at Purdue, although he can occasionally be found skulking around our lab.

Zafer Bulut   Visiting Research Scholar

Dr. Bulut was a visiting scientist from Turkey who studyied MHC expression and alternative splicing in salamanders.

Dave Glista   MS Student

Dave finished his MS degree in December 2006.  He studied wildlife and conservation biology, specifically the impact of roadkill on amphibians.  Dave is now an environmental scientist with the Indiana Dept. of Transportation.

David Gopurenko   Postdoc

David Gopurenko did his graduate work on the phylogeography of Australian mud crabs.  A native Aussie, David G. worked on parentage and relatedness in smallmouth salamanders and in tiger salamanders.  David is now a Research Officer with New South Wales Dept. of Science and Research in Australia.

Jamie Rudnick  PhD Student

Jamie is interested in conservation genetics and zoo biology.  She is a 2006 PhD graduate who used noninvasively collected feather samples to monitor an endangered Eastern Imperial Eagle population.  Jamie is now a Population Biologist with the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park.

Deb Triant  PhD Student

Deb is another recent PhD graduate (2006).  She studied the translocation of genes from the mitochondrial genome to the nuclear genome of voles (Microtus).  Deb sequenced the entire mtDNA genome of M. rossiaemeridionalis in an effort to gauge rates of molecular evolution in that genus--which evolves 3X as rapidly as most other mammalian genera!  Deb recently started a comparative genomics postdoc position at LSU.

Sara Turner  PhD Student

Sara finished her PhD in the summer of 2007.  She conducted experiments on the hatching success of salmonids and how mortality was related to genotype.  Sara is now doing a postdoc at the Univ. of Alaska (Fairbanks).

Rod Williams  PhD Student

Rod completed his dissertation in 2007, studying salamander mating systems and malformations.  Our resident herpetologist, Rod developed a powerful suite of microsatellite markers for use in Ambystomid salamanders. Click here to download our microsatellite-enrichment cloning protocol.  Rod is now an Assistant Professor at Purdue.

Sarah Eddy, Undergraduate Researcher

Sarah is a former student who worked on medaka sperm competition experiments. She is now a PhD student at Oregon State.

Brooke Williams, Undergraduate Researcher

Brooke is a former student who did field-work on migration patterns in Ambystomid salamanders.

Natalia Belfiore, Postdoc

Tasha is a former postdoc who worked on single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

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