I joined the lab in June 2009 after completing my PhD at Cornell, in the lab of Andy Clark. There, my work focused on the evolutionary genetics of the innate immune response in Drosophila. In addition to examining naturally occurring variation in the immune reponse in D. melanogaster, I assayed regulatory divergence between D. melanogaster and D. simulans by quantifying patterns of expression changes in interspecific hybrids in response to bacterial infection.

Here, I am exploring functional divergence between Drosophila species in a new set of phenotypes, starting with wing spot and courtship behavior differences between D. elegans and D. gunungcola. Following the work done in the lab by Shu-Dan Yeh to map the loci involved in these traits, I am further exploring the differences between these species and the possible genes involved.