Doctoral Student Education Education: B.S. in Biological Sciences with Chemistry and Italian minors from the University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh, PA Research Research Areas: Evolutionary Genetics Developmental Biology Research Interests: Anolis lizards are known for convergent adaptive radiations across the Caribbean islands. Lizards on different islands independently evolved the same sets of habitat specialists, termed ‘ecomorphs’. While some ecomorphs have evolved long hindlimbs, others have evolved short hindlimbs. I am researching the genetic basis of hindlimb evolution in Anolis lizards. I am currently focused on the morphological and transcriptional outcomes of mutating a key hindlimb gene, tbx4. I am in the process of generating tbx4 mutant Anolis sagrei, a long-limbed species of anole. I will perform morphological analyses on micro-CT scans of both wild-type and mutant A. sagrei to examine the impact of tbx4 mutations on hindlimb length. Additionally, I will use stage 5 embryos to perform RNA-seq and examine the transcriptional impact of heterozygous and homozygous tbx4 mutations. Labs (please indicate whose lab you are a member of): Douglas Menke
