The overall focus of my research is to understand the functional organization of the mouse genome and the evolutionary constraints influencing genome structure.

GENE DESERTS
The spacing of genes across the genome is non-random. In mammals, there are long spans of gene-poor regions (known as “gene deserts') between dense clusters of genes. This research examines the potential significance of genes within gene deserts to hypothesize the functional importance of the gene deserts. I am identifying classes of genes which are over-represented in deserts and conservation of deserts across taxa.

RECOMBINATION HOT SPOTS
The probability of recombination is not uniform across a chromosome; some regions have high recombination rates (hot spots) and others, lower (cold spots). I am looking for genomic features strongly correlated to local recombination rate as part of the Petkov laboratory's effort to understand observed patterns of recombination hot spots. Analysis includes examining correlations with gene density, repetitive motifs, gene deserts, and domains of linkage disequilibrium.