The Aris-Brosou lab
Our research group works in Computational Molecular Evolution. The themes we address range from very specific theoretical aspects to applications based on real data sets (hypothesis-driven) or complete databases (both data and hypothesis-driven). Recent and current research topics include (click links below for details):
- Influenza evolution
- Viral phylodynamics
- Theoretical developments in estimation of divergence times
- Environmental genomics of the Haptophytes
- Estimation of selective pressures acting on protein-coding genes
- Mode and tempo of the diversification of gene families
In collaboration with Dr. Susan Nadin-Davis (Canadian Food Inspection Agency), we recently studied the spatial and temporal dynamics of rabies virus variants in big brown bat populations across Canada. This study made use of a joint phylogenetic and population genetics approach to unravel how the bat population structure accross Canada has affected the historical spread of rabies virus variants across the country, and what is the potential impact of these events on public health concerns regarding rabies.
We also are developing a prediction model for emerging viruses, with a particular interest in the evolution of inlfuenza viruses.
Research facilities
A small computer cluster was purchased from Sun Microsystems in 2007 thanks to a CFI grant with one X2200, three X4100 and two X4600 servers clocked at 2.6 GHz with 96 GB of distributed memory (up to 32 GB on the X4600s); iMacs, PC xeon boxes and (for legacy) ultra sparc 80s are available as workstations.
