Student Research
Undergraduate students in the lab do different types of research that are themed around evolution, genomics, and animal behavior.
Some students annotate genes from different species of Drosophila fruit flies to help understand the evolution of the insulin signaling pathway. This is part of a multi-institutional project organized by the Genomics Education Partnership (GEP). Some students are taking it further to annotate genes in a draft genome assembly of a eusocial snapping shrimp. Some students are working on bioinformatics to study differential gene expression between queen and worker eusocial shrimps. Some students study the sexual system and morphological differences between and within snapping shrimp species.
If you are interested, please contact Dr. Chak to discuss potential research directions!
Prashanti Kodali presenting the class project at the Metropolitan Association of College and University Biologists (MACUB) Conference (Nov 2022)
OW students prepared the lab to process snapping shrimps (Summer 2022)
Christina is analyzing differential gene expression between queens and workers in S. elizabethae.
OW students collecting snapping shrimps (Summer 2022)
OW students doing behavioral experiment with snapping shrimps (Summer 2022)
Thiago presenting his research on fruit fly gene annotation (Summer 2022)