research
My research uses computational genomics and population genetics to understand how admixture shapes genomic variation and what it can reveal about selection, demography, and evolutionary history. I work in the Mathieson Lab at the University of Pennsylvania with Iain Mathieson.
Admixture and Natural Selection in Ancient Populations
My work focuses on understanding how admixture shapes genomic variation and how we can reliably detect selection from ancestry patterns. In Neolithic Europe, I benchmark local ancestry inference methods in ancient DNA and integrate results across approaches to identify robust signals of selection. Check out our preprint: biorxiv.org.
Cancer Risk Across Populations
I study how genetic risk for cancer varies across populations, with a focus on advancing ancestry-inclusive genomics research. My work on uveal melanoma used meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies to identify novel risk loci and characterize population effect size heterogeneity. View publication.
Admixture Mapping and Cross-Population Phenotypic Differences
As part of a collaborative project with Bogdan Pasaniuc's lab using the All of Us Research Program, I contributed to evaluating ancestry outliers and testing for technical artifacts in local ancestry inference results, within a broader effort to characterize cross-population phenotypic differences through admixture mapping. View preprint.
Past Research (UMich)
During my undergraduate work at the University of Michigan, I studied the genetic basis of exploratory behavior in birds across environmentally fragmented landscapes with Lacey Knowles and Rachel Wadleigh. I also worked with Stacey Rosenbaum to validate hormone assay methods in endangered mountain gorillas. In the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Michigan Medical School, I investigated transposable element evolution in the dog genome with Jeffery Kidd.