That organisms can reproduce makes them different from a simple bag of chemicals. It means that over time there can be change: in other words, evolution.

Research in the Evolution domain considers all aspects of the evolutionary process, from micro-evolution to macro-evolution; from understanding bacterial evolution that occurs within hours to the diversification of organisms over millions of years.

We consider both curiosity-driven and applied evolutionary questions and use a large variety of experimental, computational and theoretical tools. We have expertise in functional and comparative genomics, experimental evolution, evolutionary quantitative genetics, theoretical population genetics, evolutionary ecology as well as palaeontology.

With biodiversity in crisis, we seek to understand how best to conserve endangered species. Given great public interest in our research, and the field more generally, we research the effective communication of evolutionary facts and ideas, both in schools and to the public.

The overarching aims of our research are to better understand the evolutionary process to salve people’s curiosity about life and the human condition, and to apply that same information and skill set to aid the development of diagnostics and therapies for genetic and infectious disease, to enable crop security and to preserve biodiversity.

Focus areas

Our research within this domain focusses on:

• Comparative genomics of bacteria, fungi and mammals
• Applied evolution (for transgene design, vaccine development, food security and countering antimicrobial resistance)
• Pathogen diversity and evolution
• Evolutionary genetics and genomics
• Evolutionary quantitative genetics
• Comparative biology (including mating system evolution)
• Experimental evolution (bacterial and fungal)
• Bat and bird conservation
• Palaeontology and statistical macro-evolution