Team

Michael is trained in chemistry, genetics and plant biology, and has degrees from the University of the Philippines, Columbia University and the University of Georgia. He did his postdoctoral research at the University of California-San Diego, and his first faculty position was at the North Carolina State University. He moved to NYU in 2006, where he has served as the Dean for Science, the co-director of the NYU Center for Genomics and Systems Biology in New York and Abu Dhabi, and is currently the Silver Professor of Biology. He is also an affiliate faculty member at NYU Abu Dhabi and the NYU Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

Amina received her PhD in Biology from Moscow State University, Russia, where she worked on Arabidopsis cold response genetics and evolution of cold response genes. Prior to joining Michael's lab, Amina also did a postdoc with Paul Schedl at Princeton University, Department of Molecular Biology. There, she focused on the epigenetic regulation in Drosophila, specifically on insulators and insulator-binding proteins. In Purugganan lab, Amina is investigating drought tolerance genetics in rice, and the role of epigenetics and genome organization in this process.

Sonal is a computational biologist who is broadly interested in understanding how plants adapt to various selection pressures. She completed her Ph.D from the University of Michigan under the guidance of Dr. Regina Baucom where she studied the genetic underpinnings of adaptive traits in sweetpotato and morning glories. In the Purugganan lab, Sonal is investigating the genetics of salinity tolerance in rice and will further work to understand the role of selection pressures on gene expression changes enabling adaptation.

Isaura is a biologist broadly interested in understanding different aspects of plant diversity and evolution. During her master's degree she worked on cacti evolutionary relationships (phylogenetics, systematics). During this period she became interested in evo-devo (genetic bases of floral organ identity, size and shape), particularly in Cactaceae. At the beginning of 2023 she obtained her PhD in Biological Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). During her training she worked on transcriptomics, anatomy and comparative morphology in cacti, gaining insights into the knowledge of differential organ size in cacti flowers. She also proposed different hypotheses to explain floral organ identity in Cactaceae, and has used developmental series and molecular analyses to explore them. Currently, she is exploring other aspects of plant evolution, such as the genetic bases of local adaptation, using rice as a model system. She is a founding member of La Red Mexicana de Biología Evolutiva (ReMBE) and is part of the organizing committee of monthly seminars which are focused on the dissemination of evolutionary research conducted in Mexico.

Yesenia is a Colombian biologist interested in the genetic and evolutionary bases of plant development. As an undergraduate and during her master’s studies at the Plant EvoDevo Lab (Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia), she focused on the variation in floral morphology and symmetry in non-core eudicots, using Asparagales (Hypoxidaceae and Orchidaceae) and Piperales (Aristolochiaceae) as models. She obtained her PhD in Biology from the same University in 2024, researching the genetic bases of flowering transition in neotropical orchids. Taking an evolutionary, transcriptomic, and morphological approach, she focused on meristem fate and determinacy during the reproductive phase change and their relationship to the formation of storage organs, such as pseudobulbs, which are present only in epiphytic orchid species. Yesenia is broadly interested in monocot trait evolution and adaptation. At the Purugganan lab, she is integrating bioinformatics and comparative genomics to investigate the implications of relaxed selection and pseudogenization during rice domestication.

Ornob is a graduate student studying the demographic and evolutionary history of domesticated Asian rice in the context of human migrations and climate change events in the past. Past research includes work on hormonal modulation of antiviral responses, health delivery in slums in Bangladesh, and the social impact of the 1947 Partition of British India. Beyond his research, Ornob is interested in science communication.

Yu-Chen is a Ph.D. student interested in comparative and evolutionary genomics. He received his undergraduate degree from National Taiwan University. Previous research experience include stem cell biology and bacterial genome evolution. In the Purugganan lab, Yu-Chen is studying the pangenome and evolutionary history of indica rice.

Isabel obtained her Bachelor’s in Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley. There, she used computational and experimental techniques to characterize the population structure of a plant pathogen (Xylella fastidiosa), and diversity of the two subspecies that are associated with Almond Leaf Scorch disease in California. As a Ph.D. student in the Purugganan lab, Isabel’s research explores the epigenetic basis of variation and adaptation in rice.

Michael received his MS in bioinformatics from NYU Tandon School of Engineering in 2017. He began developing RNA-seq pipelines while working with Dr. Jonathan Flowers as a student and graduate employee and continued working with the Purugganan Lab as a bioinformatics consultant after earning his degree, focusing on developing the Date Palm Genome Hub website. Michael's ongoing and upcoming projects with the lab include expanding and updating the Genome Hub website, producing genome feature visualizations and related pipelines in R, performing alignments and SNP calling using the Genome Analysis Toolkit, and assisting with gene annotation and other website development.

Jonathan completed his PhD research on molecular evolution at UC San Diego in 2005. He then conducted a post-doc at Stony Brook University, where he worked on functional and population genomics research in Drosophila. Since joining the Purugganan Lab, Jonathan has led or co-led genome sequencing projects in crops and other plant species. Jonathan research interests include addressing questions concerning the molecular basis of trait variation and the roles of natural selection, hybridization, and other processes in shaping this variation. Recently, Jonathan has co-led projects on GWAS, whole genome assembly, and studies of trait diversity in date palms. He has also led an effort to develop the most comprehensive genomic database in date palms to facilitate dissemination of genomic data collected at NYUAD to researchers worldwide and to develop tools to enable new discoveries in evolutionary and applied crop genomics.

Tiago Capote is a biochemist by formation and holds a PhD in biology with specialization in bioinformatics, genomics and plant functional biology. Tiago research interests include plant genome evolution and introgression in species adapted to middle and extreme environments. Tiago was involved in several genome and transcriptome analysis since early in his scientific career. At the moment he is the responsible one for the construction of new reference genome assemblies for all Phoenix species. On this project Tiago is using long-reads (PacBio and Nanopore), short-read and linked-read (illumina and 10X Genomics) as well as optical maps (Bionano) and Proximity-ligation sequencing (Hi-C/Omni-C, Dovetail) to generate gold reference genomes. In parallel, Tiago is improving the last version of the date palm reference genome released by the Purugganan’s lab, to a chromosome-level assembly. Additionally, he is also constructing a high-density genetic map for Phoenix dactylifera among other genomic tools, as a curated recombination map which will be released for all date palm research community, breeders and farmers to make use of advanced genomic techniques of crop improvement in the near future.

Muriel Gros-Balthazard obtained her PhD in evolutionary biology from the University of Montpellier. Muriel coordinated the "date palm diversity" project for three years (2018-2020) and is the principal investigator of the "al-Ula date palm" project since October 2019. Since January 2020, she is a researcher at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (Montpellier) with a joint appointment to the lab.

Sylvie Ferrand is a Research Assistant at NYUAD and works for the date palm diversity group. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, from Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse (2004). She works on preparing date palm samples for Next Generation Sequencing, and she is responsible for the efficient running of the laboratory.