I am interested in how the world evolved into what we see today. From where come all these novelties: novel species, novel mating systems, novel traits, novel genes, novel proteins, etc., and what will happen after they emerge?

In the Rausher lab at Duke, my graduate school projects ask this question in two study systems: species in the tomato family Solanaceae and morning glories (Ipomoea spp.).  A protein Threonine Deaminase (TD) in Solanaceae provides me with a micro-system to examine how novelty evolves, and two morning glory species I. lacunosa and I. cordatotriloba become my macro-scopes.