Meet our team
Nathalie Feiner
Principal investigator
I am an evolutionary biologist with a background in comparative genomics and developmental biology. Broadly speaking, I want to understand how the generation of phenotypic variation affects how evolution proceeds. This motivation has led me to pursue a diverse set of research questions that span from the developmental origins of novelties to the role of developmental plasticity in evolution – using a range of tools from geometric morphometrics to various kinds of -omics approaches. I am fortunate that most of my research questions can be addressed by studying lizards, and my new ERC-funded project on wall lizards allows me to use a developmental approach to answer one of the big questions in evolutionary biology – why does evolution repeat itself.
CV Publication list nathalie.feiner@biol.lu.se
Tobias Uller
Principal investigator
I want to understand how evolution works. This requires an integrative approach – from molecular and developmental biology to ecology – guided by mathematical modelling and conceptual analysis. My projects span across a range of topics, but most are designed to reveal how functional processes of organisms – development, physiology and behaviour – influence their evolution. We mostly study lizards, and combine experiments with genomic analyses, field studies and comparative methods. Several projects make use of mathematical modelling to predict or interpret evolutionary outcomes. The integration of development and evolution also raises conceptual issues, which I explore in contributions aimed towards biologists and philosophers of science.
CV Publication list LU website tobias.uller@biol.lu.se
Postdocs
Ivan Prates
Postdoc
Biogeography | speciation | phylogenomics | conservation biology
I am a Brazilian evolutionary biologist interested in the processes behind species and phenotypic trait diversification. I have previously worked with a great variety of frogs and lizards from the Americas and Australia, and I am now focusing my attention on Mediterranean wall lizards. By combining fieldwork with comparative genomics, I aim to answer questions on their biogeography and patterns of parallel evolution.
Roberto García-Roa
Postdoc
Sexual selection | island biogeography | photography | conservation biology
I combine science and photography to document, explain, and protect biodiversity. My research as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow investigates the evolutionary causes and consequences of the extraordinary color diversity of Mediterranean wall lizards. My aim is to establish how diversification of sexual dichromatism is shaped by phylogenetic history and ecology. I am also interested in how sexual selection influences genetic diversity and the persistence of endemic island populations.
Karen Bisschop
Postdoc
Experimental evolution | host-microbiome interactions | local adaptation
I am a visiting postdoc funded by a FWO junior postdoctoral fellowship from Belgium. I am using spider mites as an experimental system to test the role of the microbiome for niche width and host adaptation. During my stay in Lund, I will specifically explore population genetic aspects of local adaptation in spider mites and the genomic basis of host plant specificity.
Lisandro Milocco
Postdoc
Theoretical biology | evo-devo | quantitative genetics | experimental evolution
I want to understand biological diversity and why organisms look the way they do. My approach is based on predictive modeling of evolution and development as dynamical systems. I am also interested in the connections between this dynamical description and quantitative genetics. My current research aims to develop theory to establish the relationship between selection in variable environments and the evolution of development, with a particular focus on its implications for evolvability.
Javier Ábalos
Postdoc
Behavioral ecology | island biogeography | phenotypic integration| repeated evolution
My aim is to understand how behaviour, coloration, and colour vision co-evolve to help animals cope with their environment. In my PhD, I explored the functional significance of colour polymorphism in wall lizards by testing ideas rooted in sexual selection, sensory ecology and animal communication theory. My current research explores how selection on behaviour contributes to the repeated evolution of a suite of exaggerated traits in wall lizards.
javier.abalos_alvarez.6724@biol.lu.se
Quentin Horta-Lacueva
Postdoc
Adaptive divergence | phenotypic integration | morphometrics| comparative biology
I am interested in the developmental origins of morphological diversity. During my PhD, I studied how hybridization affects feeding morphology, developmental timing and animal personality in Arctic charr morphs. Now focusing on the evolution of the skull in lizards, I investigate how particular types of embryonic cells may influence diversification and convergence.
quentin.horta-lacueva@biol.lu.se
Jonathan Goldenberg
Postdoc
Colors and color patterns | macroevolution | ecological drivers
My overall research focuses on understanding how the evolution and thermal properties of colored integument impact species’ ecology. I integrate biophysical, spatial, and evolutionary models to evaluate how species cope with changing climatic conditions. With the support of the Wenner-Gren Foundations, I now explore which conditions promote parallel evolution, such as the female color pattern polymorphism observed in Anolis lizards.
PhD students
Robin Pranter
PhD student
Developmental bias | parallel evolution | evo-devo| neural crest cells
I am interested in the developmental basis of adaptive phenotypic changes, in particular the developmental origins of complex phenotypes. During my PhD, I will investigate a suite of exaggerated traits – a syndrome – that has repeatedly evolved in different wall lizard species. My aim is to identify the cellular and genetic changes that are associated with the syndrome to ultimately understand why evolution tends to repeat itself.
Garazi Martin Bideguren
PhD student
Microbiome | co-evolution | adaptation | climate
I am a PhD student based at the University of Copenhagen, working with animal-microbiota interactions in Antton Alberdi’s group. My research explores the microbiome of lizards and the interactions between these bacteria and their host. My overall aim is to understand the role of gut microbes in adaptation to different environments.
Anna Penna
Visiting PhD student
Biogeography | phylogenomics | body size evolution | skull morphology
I am a PhD student based at the University of Texas at San Antonio, US. My PhD project is aiming to disentangle phylogenetic relationships among primates with a special focus on the tiniest members that have often been overlooked by primatologists in the past. Besides primates, I do also have a soft spot for herps!
MSc students
Tyra Westelius
MSc student
Color pattern polymorphism | sex-specific expression | gene regulation
I am a student in the first cohort of the new MSc progrom in Evolutionary Biology at Lund University. My MSc project tries to uncover why the diamond pattern polymorphism is restricted to females, but not males, of the brown anole lizard. This is puzzling given that the causal gene is located on an autsome, and not from a sex chromosome. I will investigate if the genomic linkage with the Estrogen receptor gene 1 is causing a lower expression of the patterning gene, and therefore causes the sex-linkage of the polymorphism.