Emerson Lab
Principal Investigator: James Jordan Emerson
Institution: University of California, Irvine (Irvine, CA)
Primary Subfield: Genetics/Genomics
Recruitment Status: ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
Project Summary/Abstract Background: Understanding the origin and fate of genetic variation relies on accurate measurement of that genetic variation. Until recently, whole genome sequencing approaches exhibited blind spots regarding vast swaths of genomes comprising repetitive regions, despite repeated demonstrations of the importance of mutations involving gene duplications, tandem duplications, TE insertions, and other structural changes that are associated with repeats. Indeed, such mutations are often targets of adaptation, are associated with variation in human traits, play causative roles in many genetic diseases, and often play key roles in important phenotypes in species that coexist with humans (e.g. conferring pesticide resistance to human disease vectors). Despite this, surveys of genetic variation typically continue to select techniques based on convenience and cost-effectiveness. Indeed, even standard long-read sequencing approaches fail to recover >15% of the genome. A better way would be to apply emerging methods capable of resolving all regions, particularly ensemble approaches combining highly accurate and ultra-long sequencing technologies and long-range scaffoldi…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R35GM153327-03: The origin, maintenance, and adaptive consequences of variation in genome structure (2026)
- 5R35GM153327-02: The origin, maintenance, and adaptive consequences of variation in genome structure (2025)
- 1R35GM153327-01: The origin, maintenance, and adaptive consequences of variation in genome structure (2024)
Explore 700+ US Biology Labs on FindBioLabs.com