Our research group integrates comparative genomics and computational structural biology to investigate fundamental questions across the biological spectrum. We leverage a broad suite of computational approaches to explore diverse biological systems, with a core focus on evolutionary logic and inference.

​

Guided by the principle that evolutionary thinking offers a powerful lens to decode molecular diversity and innovation, our work builds on the basis that nature—through billions of genetic experiments over evolutionary time—has woven, and continues to weave, a dynamic tapestry of molecular evolution. Comparative and evolutionary genomics provide the means to unravel the dynamic landscape of molecular evolution and reveal the principles—such as divergence, constraint, convergence, and related forces—that drive molecular innovation and functional diversification.

 

At the molecular scale, we analyze sequence–structure relationships of protein domains and families, track lineage-specific gene expansions, and identify diversification patterns that scale up to organismal adaptation and evolutionary novelty. These approaches allow us to dissect the molecular strategies from prokaryotic defenses against selfish genetic elements to major eukaryotic transitions shaped by gene family expansions and whole-genome duplications. We are also broadly interested in the evolution of protein folds, focusing on how the evolutionary malleability of folds enables proteins to adapt, diversify, and repurpose their functions across diverse biological contexts, and how these functional shifts can be systematically traced and predicted using computational approaches.

 

Unified by a central interest in the evolution of molecular systems, our research themes apply evolutionary reasoning to understand how proteins and genomes diversify, adapt, and innovate across diverse biological contexts.

 

The following sections highlight the major research themes currently pursued in our group

​

• Prokaryotic Defense Systems

• Lineage-Specific Expansions (LSEs) of Gene Families in Metazoans

• Genome Sequencing of Invertebrates to Study the LSEs and Other Adaptive Diversifications

• Comparative Genomics of Lipid-Binding GPCRs: Evolution, Specificity, and Human Variation

• Adaptive Evolution of Diverse Protein Folds and Domains and Their Functional Diversification in Prokaryotes