Damian K. Dowling

Research Group

Research Fellows

• Dr Magdalena Nystrand
• Dr Rebecca Adrian
• Dr Susi Zajitschek

Research Assistants

• Dr Winston Yee

PhD Students

• Venkatesh Nagarajan Radha
• Rebecca Vaught
• Ilaria Venturelli
• Andrea Pozzi
• Tara-Lyn Carter
• Ekta

Research Overview

Research in Damian's group is focused on understanding how life evolves. We draw on experimental evolutionary, genomic and ecological techniques to explore fundamental biological questions.

Our core goal is to understand the evolution of our energy-producing genes. The mitochondria are salient to eukaryote life. Curiously, their functionality hinges on fine-tuned interactions between genes that reside over two obligate genomes.  This sets the stage for inter-genomic evolutionary collaborations and conflicts between these genes, which will ultimately affect the dynamics of core life history processes.

Other projects in our group explore the biology of ageing, and the evolution of sex differences.