Genetics, Genomics & Epigenetics

We are in the midst of a genomic revolution. New sequencing technologies have recently uncovered a universe of previously uncharacterized genomic variation, wide-ranging changes in gene expression, and epigenetic modifications.

The Genetics, Genomics & Epigenetics research theme possesses the wide range of expertise necessary to make sense of this onslaught of data and make new discoveries about basic biological patterns and processes at many scales. Moving from single proteins to population-level genomics, we leverage the tools and techniques of modern biology to derive first principles of how genes and genomes change and interact within organisms, populations, and across evolutionary time.

Our group employs high-throughput genomic sequencing technologies to study a wide breadth of organisms: from agriculturally important plants to humans and our closest relatives to the bacterial world that lives inside us. We are a multi-disciplinary group, with expertise in generating and analyzing next-generation sequence data, bioinformatics, mammalian and stem cell culture, multiple model systems, phylogenetic analyses, comparative genomics, population genetics, association mapping, developmental genetics, forward genetics, quantitative genetics, the human microbiome, molecular evolution, and epigenetics.

Understanding genomic and genetic variation across many scales has direct implications for developing personalized treatments and diagnoses, based on this new wealth of genomic data.

 

Genetics, Genomics & Epigenetics

Contact Info

Courtney Babbitt, Biology
(413) 545-5574
cbabbitt@bio.umass.edu