Dissertation Research

Applications of Evolutionary Theory to Genotype/Phenotype Association Studies

My interests are related to the genetic architecture of disease related phenotypes such as coronary artery disease via cholesterol related traits and various phenotypes of drug response in cancer patients.  We are working on ways to estimate the evolutionary  relationships between haplotypes in candidate genes in natural  populations and use this information to direct genotype/phenotype association studies.  This information can deal with recurrent mutation and improves both statistical power and subsequent  biological inference.  We are trying to integrate this information into methods to study epistasis in natural populations where unbalanced data is the rule.
 

Contact Information

Taylor Maxwell, Ph.D.

Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology
Washington University Medical School
660 S. Euclid Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63110

e-mail: maxwell *at* biology2.wustl.edu