dr Rafal Gutaker

University:
Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University, New York City, USA

Country:
USA

Activity at Home University:
I am a Postdoctoral Associate at the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University. I lead research projects on comparative genomics of crop plants and method development for plant ancient DNA.

Research field:
Ancient DNA revolutionized the field of evolutionary biology for humans and ignited that revolution for other model and non-model organism. Plant ancient DNA can help us better understand the origins of crops, their dispersal and evolution in different environmental conditions. This is very important because our food security relies heavily on the diversity of our crops and their ability to evolve in response to changing climate.

Research interests and experience:
Throughout my academic career I was driven by passion for history, evolution and plant biology. I completed my PhD at the University of Warwick working on ancient genomics. Since 2014, I have worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology developing laboratory protocols and computational approaches to compare ancient and modern genomes of plants. In 2017, I became a postdoctoral associate at New York University to lead research on the effects of the environment on crop evolution.

Activity at CNBCh UW:
I will present a lecture on the developments in ancient DNA techniques and their utility in studying crop genomes. I will also consult the research groups at CnBCh and CeNT about the operations of new generation sequencing core facilities.

CNBCh UW Research Group:
Analytical Expert Centre

Date of stay:
25 July –3 August 2019