Expertise:
- Genomics, Statistical and Quantitative Genetics, Transcriptomics
Research Interests
We study how genomic variation influences gene expression and complex traits. Individuals in a species carry their own, unique genome. Their genomes differ from each other at thousands to millions of sites. Many of these differences have no effect. Others can dramatically influence the way an individual looks, how it behaves, or which diseases it is susceptible to. How can we tell which DNA differences have consequences for the organism? How exactly do these polymorphisms exert their effects? And how did this genomic diversity evolve? We are examining these questions by combining experimental functional genomics and computational statistical genetics. A particular focus is on emerging technologies for high-throughput reading, editing, and synthesizing of genomes, which now allow us to systematically answer questions at the core of genetics. We deploy these tools in yeast and other species to learn fundamental principles of how genetic variation shapes phenotypes across eukaryotic life.
Selected Publications:PubMed
Albert FW and Kruglyak L. (2015) The role of regulatory variation in complex traits and disease. Nature Reviews Genetics 16: 197-212
Albert FW, Treusch S, Shockley AH, Bloom JS, and Kruglyak L (2014) Genetics of single-cell protein abundance variation in large yeast populations. Nature 506: 494-497
Albert FW, Muzzey D, Weissman J, and Kruglyak L (2014) Genetic influences on translation in yeast. PLoS Genetics 10 (10), e1004692
Heyne HO, Lautenschläger S, Nelson R, Besnier F, Rotival M, Cagan A, Kozhemyakina R, Plyusnina IZ, Trut L, Carlborg Ö, Petretto E, Kruglyak L, Pääbo S, Schöneberg T, Albert FW (2014) Genetic Influences on Brain Gene Expression in Rats Selected for Tameness and Aggression. Genetics 198 (3): 1277-1290
Albert FW, Somel M, Carneiro M, Aximu-Petri A, Halbwax M, Thalman O, Blanco-Aguiar JA, Plyusnina I, Trut L, Villafuerte R, Ferrand N, Kaiser S, Jensen P, and Pääbo S. (2012) A comparison of brain gene expression levels in domesticated and wild animals PLoS Genetics 8 (9): e1002962
Updated: 08/08/2017