Thomas Laboratory

Areas of Specialization/Research Interests:
Genome Evolution
Comparative Genome Mapping
Interspecies Genomic Sequence Comparisons
Bioinformatics/Computational Biology

Education:
1998 Ph.D., Department of Genetics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
1991 A.B., Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri

Research Description:
Comparative genetics of human disease and vertebrate genome evolution
There is abundant phenotypic variation between species and within the human population. However, the genetic basis for most of this phenotypic variation is not known. The goal of our research is to use comparative genomics to address this fundamental gap in knowledge. In particular, our research uses a comparative genomics approach to identify when and how candidate functional genetic differences between species arose, and then to apply that knowledge to the development of better animal models of human disease and to a more complete understanding of the evolutionary history of the human genome. Ongoing projects in our laboratory include: the evaluation of a potential new mouse model of Lesch-Nyhan disease, targeted comparative mapping and sequencing in nonhuman primates, genomic characterization of a chromosome polymorphism in an avian model of social behavior, and analysis of near-identical but widely conserved segmental duplications on the X chromosome.