MEMBERS

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Nathan Clark PhD

Nathan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his PhD in Genome Sciences in the lab of Willie Swanson at the University of Washington. His NRSA-funded postdoctoral studies took place at Cornell under the mentorship of Chip Aquadro. He began as an Assistant Professor in 2012 in the Department of Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Pittsburgh. There he received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor and remains a proud Adjunct member of that department. In 2019, the Clark lab moved to the University of Utah as part of an Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics hiring initiative.

In 2023, the lab moved to its current home in Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. The Clark lab conducts evolutionary research at the interface of computational and experimental biology mostly within the themes of adaptive and convergent evolution. Major projects in the lab focus on the regressive evolution of eyesight in subterranean mammals, evolutionary adaptation to hypoxia and oxidative stress as encountered during diving and at high altitude, the evolution of long lifespan, and the creation of novel phylogenetic and comparative genomics methods to infer function from evolutionary patterns.

CURRENT MEMBERS

Jered Stratton

Lab Manager

Jered is the lab manager for the Clark Lab. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Genetics at Iowa State University and his PhD in Genetics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He has a long running interest in evolution and the genetic basis of phenotypic variation in nature. His training has spanned both computational and molecular biology techniques across many different systems including influenza, mice, human cell lines, and zebrafish. In the Clark Lab, Jered is supporting and mentoring trainees at every level and is thrilled to share in their scientific discoveries and growth. Outside of the lab, Jered enjoys strategy games, music, and spending time with his family including cats, a dog, a guinea pig and a tortoise.

Emily Kopania

Post-doctoral Fellow

Emily is a postdoc studying the evolution of the retina in fish and the evolution of reproductive traits in murine rodents. She received her Ph.D. in 2022 from the University of Montana, where she studied the molecular evolution of sperm development and hybrid sterility in house mice. She is interested in understanding how developmental constraints and ecological selection pressures shape molecular and trait evolution. Outside of science, she enjoys hiking and playing the flute.

ekopania.github.io | X

Jordan Little

Ph.D. Student

Jordan is a PhD student at the University of Utah. She is focusing on using evolutionary tools to find novel genetic and protein interactions. She is also interested in conservation genomics, specifically focusing on climate niche adaptation of squamates. Outside of research she enjoys anything outdoors, college sports, and crochet.

Dwon Jordana

Ph.D. Student

Dwon is a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh. His current interest is to understand the role of cis-regulatory elements in disease. He also seeks to learn computational techniques to assist him with his research goals. Outside of academia he mainly enjoys biking, hiking, and fishing.

Courtney Charlesworth

Ph.D. Student

Guillermo Hoffmann Meyer

Technician / Programmer

Guillermo is a research technician working on keeping the lab’s codebase up to date with new methods and examining evolutionary rate signal over time in yeast. He received his bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2024 from Mississippi State University, and intends to enter graduate school next year. Outside the lab, he enjoys cooking, fencing, and volunteering at the aviary.