Welcome to the Messer lab in the Department of Computational Biology at Cornell University. We are interested in a broad range of topics in evolutionary biology and population genetics. Over the past years, our research has centered on rapid evolutionary processes, focusing on examples that allow us to study evolution directly as it unfolds over time and space. To this end, we employ an integrative approach that combines theory, large-scale computer simulations, laboratory experiments, and analysis of genomic data from natural and experimental populations. Among our main contributions have been studies on the evolutionary dynamics of CRISPR gene drives, research on rapid adaptation by hard and soft selective sweeps, the design of methods for inference of selection from population genomic data, and the development of the SLiM evolutionary simulation framework.

Contact:

Philipp W. Messer
Associate Professor
Department of Computational Biology
Cornell University
102J Weill Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853
email: messer@cornell.edu