We seek to understand the emergence, variability,
and persistence of molecular information.
How can such information arise, drive function, adapt, and persist? We study basic and applied aspects of this question:
Origins of Life
How could molecular information and self-replication arise from chemical building blocks of the early Earth?
Human Virome
How do communities of viruses, including their genetic variants, make us sick?
We collaborate with clinicians, biologists, chemists, mathematicians, and computer scientists to advance state-of-the-art methods that address these and other fundamental and societal challenges.
Through undergraduate research, engineer predicts the path, impact of viral mutations
Drying process could be key step in the development of life
https://engineering.wisc.edu/news/drying-process-could-be-key-step-in-the-development-of-life/
Astrovirology: how viruses enhance our understanding of life in the Universe
Viruses are ubiquitous replicators of molecular information and agents of community change. They potently affect life on Earth, and they may play a critical role in human spaceflight, for life-detection missions to other planetary
