Robert Unckless

Our research focuses on evolutionary genomics of conflict. This conflict is often between hosts and pathogens or parasites, but also involves interaction between different entities within a genome. We use Drosophila to study interactions between hosts and bacteria, viruses and fungi. We also study meiotic drive (where chromosomes kill gametes containing homologous chromosomes) in Drosophila. The lab uses genomics, genetics, computational biology, microbiology and biochemistry to address fundamental questions in the biology of conflict.

I earned my undergraduate degree from Cornell University (1997), then stayed at Cornell for a Masters degree (1999). I then taught high school science for 7 years in Massachusetts and New York. In 2006, I began a PhD program at the University of Rochester, studying with John Jaenike and H. Allen Orr (completed in 2011). My postdoc was back at Cornell University where I worked with Brian Lazzaro and Andy Clark. I started at KU in 2016.

I am currently Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and am an affiliate member of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Center for Computational Biology. I serve as the Director of the KU Center for Genomics and was named an Edward and Thelma Wohlgemuth Faculty Scholar.