Biography:

1995-2000 Indiana University Biology Department, Bloomington Ph.D. in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, 1994-1995 Indiana University, Bachelor of Science, Biology 1990-1994 Kazakh National University, Biology Department

Graduate and Postdoctoral Training

8/04-8/06: Instructor of Developmental Biology, Dept. of Developmental Biology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
7/00-8/04: Postdoctoral Fellow, laboratory of Dr. Clifford Tabin, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
4/96-5/00: Graduate student, laboratory of Dr. Thomas Kaufman Biology Department and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington
9/93-6/94: Research Assistant, laboratory of Dr.R. Bersimbaev, Department of Biology, Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Honors and Fellowships

2007-2010: NSF grant Developmental Basis for Evolution of Beaks in Darwins Finches 2007: William F. Milton Fund of Harvard University Grant Roles for miRNAs in Dermal Bone Development 2006-2008: 2 postdoctoral Balzan Foundation fellowships from Dr. Peter Grant, Princeton University 2005-2006: Harvard School of Dental Medicine Fellowship in honor of Aina M. Auskaps, D.M.D. (The Eleanor and Miles Shore Fellowships of Harvard Medical School) 2004-2005: Deans Award of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine 2000-2003: Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Cancer Research Fund

Abstract:

Pecking at the Origin of Vertebrate Diversity: Insights from Darwin's Finches

The faces of vertebrates are often readily recognizable as they display a number of species-specific characteristics. It is likely that this stunning diversity of cranial morphology in vertebrates was generated by alterations in craniofacial development. We are employing a combination of genetic, genomic, molecular, bioinformatic, 2-D and 3-D imaging and modeling approaches to understand evolution of craniofacial structures, such as highly adaptive beak morphologies in such species as Darwins Finches (a classic example of species multiplication and diversification caused by natural selection) and their relatives, the African Seedcrackers Pyrenestes ostrinus (textbook example of adaptive polymorphism), and other avian and reptilian species. The major goal of these studies is to use both novel approaches on well-studied evolutionary systems to address some of the long-standing questions in animal development and evolution