Trevor Krabbenhoft, Assistant Professor

We study fish genome evolution and the origins and maintenance of biodiversity. I am particularly interested how polyploidy (whole genome duplications) contribute to phenotypic and ecological diversity fishes such as suckers (Catostomidae) and ciscoes (Salmonidae).

Dr. Isabel (Isa) Porto-Hannes, Research Scientist

Isa is working on understanding the invasion of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) in Lake Erie. She is also interested in freshwater mussel (Unionidae) conservation and restoration.

Dr. Daniel (Dan) MacGuigan, NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology

Dan studies fish evolutionary genomics, hybridization, and speciation.

Nathan Backenstose, Dean's Graduate Fellow and Ph.D. Candidate

Nate is studying the evolution of the Great Lakes cisco (Coregonus spp.) species flock.

Hannah Waterman, Schomburg Graduate Fellow and Ph.D. Candidate

Hannah is studying the evolution of DNA methylation following whole genome duplication in fishes. She is also interested in how DNA methylation contributes to sex determination in fishes.

Kimberly Louisor, Schomburg Graduate Fellow and Ph.D. Student

Kimberly is interested in the evolution of aging in fishes.

Christopher Osborne, Ph.D. Student

Christopher is studying variation in thiaminase tolerance in lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) populations using pan-genomics.

Brian Foote, M.S. Student. (former Undergraduate Honors student and Knoblouch Fellow)

Brian is currently studying the invasion dynamics of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) in Lake Erie.

Emily Bouffard, Undergraduate Honors student and Miles Fellow

Emily is studying the effects of laboratory (hatchery) rearing conditions on cisco (Coregonus artedi) development using direct RNA nanopore sequencing.

Pia Schwarz, Undergraduate Honors Student and Miles Fellow

Pia is studying the ecology and evolutionary dynamics of a hybrid swarm of tessellated darters, Etheostoma olmstedi. She is also an excellent tennis player at University at Buffalo, having recently been named to the MAC 1st team!

Pia is starting her masters degree at University at Buffalo in Fall 2022.

Former Lab Members

Dr. Tianying Lan, Senior Research Scientist

Tianying studied the evolution of catostomid (sucker) genomes in the context of whole genome duplications. She is now a Senior Application Scientist at Arbor Biosciences.

Dr. Moisés Bernal, Postdoctoral Researcher

Moisés studied the connection between genetics, morphology, and ecology in Great Lakes Coregonus species ("ciscoes").  Moisés has moved on to an Assistant Professor position at Auburn University:

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/cosam/faculty/biology/bernal/index.htm


Read more about Moisés' work at:
https://sites.google.com/site/moisesbernalresearch/

Katherine (Katie) Eaton, Miles Fellow and Undergraduate Honors Student.

Katie did her undergraduate honors thesis research on the evolution of visual opsin genes in Great Lakes coregonines. The paper can be found here:

Eaton KM, Bernal MA, Backenstose NJC, Yule DL, Krabbenhoft TJ (2020) Nanopore amplicon sequencing reveals convergence and local adaptation of rhodopsin in Great Lakes salmonids. Genome Biology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.10.93/gbe/evaa237

Katie is now a PhD Student in the Bernal Lab at Auburn University.

Jessie Pelosi, Formerly an undergraduate honors student at Univ. Buffalo.

Jessie did his undergraduate research on octocoral bleaching and systematics (M. Coffroth and H. Lasker labs).

He is currently a Grinter Fellow and PhD Candidate at the University of Florida, working on comparative and population genomics of ferns in the Sessa and Barabazuk labs.