DEPARTMENT OF INTEGRATIVE BIOLOGY
SHARMA LAB
SHARMA LAB
Welcome to the Sharma Lab! Our research broadly addresses macroevolution of invertebrates through the lenses of phylogenetics, genomics, and comparative development, with emphasis on chelicerate arthropods.
This body of work integrates three avenues of inquiry:
(1) How is biodiversity distributed through time and space?
(2) What are the genetic mechanisms that underlie body plan evolution?
(3) How does the integration of phylogenetic data classes resolve challenging parts of the tree of life?
This body of work integrates three avenues of inquiry:
(1) How is biodiversity distributed through time and space?
(2) What are the genetic mechanisms that underlie body plan evolution?
(3) How does the integration of phylogenetic data classes resolve challenging parts of the tree of life?
Lab News & Events 2024-2025 (updated 23 January):
22 January 2025: Welcome to Erika Garcia, the newest addition to our team! Erika joins the lab for a three year postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Science Foundation. Check out her profile here!
13 January 2025: Many congratulations to Dr. Joseph Sardina Jr. on a formidable and exemplary thesis dissertation defense! After the completion of his thesis, JoJo is on his way to a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford.
18 December 2024: Prashant is delighted to be invited to join the teaching faculty of the legendary Woods Hole MBL embryology course in summer 2025! Fun fact: The Phalangium opilio harvestman model system was founded in summer 2009 in the parking lot behind Swope!
10 December 2024: Prashant is humbled and privileged to be awarded a Vilas Mid-Career Investigator Award! This prize supports new research directions in our lab over the next three years.
22 November 2024: The lab is delighted to have collaborated in the release of the first chromosome-level sea spider genome on bioRxiv! Check it out here! Congratulations to Niko Papadopoulos and Georg Brenneis, who led the work, as well as lab alumni Siddharth Kulkarni and Emily Setton, who contributed data for the Maine population of the species.
11 November 2024: We are ecstatic about the release of the first vinegaroon (whip scorpion) genome! Analysis of this chromosome-level resource shows the signature of an ancient, pre-Silurian whole genome duplication. Check it out here! Congratulations to Siddharth Kulkarni and Benjamin Klementz on the work!
5 September 2024: Many congratulations to Benjamin Klementz, who led a multinational team to resolve the origin of a new segment in the chelicerate leg! This work, which features developmental genetic data from daddy-longleg, mite, tick, pseudoscorpion, solifuge, and sea spider models, unites phylogeny and development to show how changes in the expression of ancient genes can create new leg segments. We are especially excited to bring the first multiplexed in situ data for several of these model species into the game, thanks to the efforts of collaborators in Nevada, Pennsylvania, Argentina, and Vienna. Check it out here!
29 August 2024: The lab is thrilled to publish Emily Setton's dissertation work on a new gene that patterns the spider waist in PLoS Biology! The lab has officially discovered and named its first gene--say hello to waist-less! Check it out here!
26 August 2024: Welcome to Tom Coyne, a new Ph.D. student in the lab! Tom joined us in the early summer to get his feet wet in arachnid development.
6 May 2024: Many congratulations to Kaitlyn Abshire on completing her qualifying and preliminary exams! Next stop: Woods Hole MBL!!
12 May 2024: The lab is delighted to publish the first higher-level molecular phylogeny of Amblypygi (whip spiders)! This international collaboration was precipitated by the discovery of a relictual lineage of whip spiders that had not been collected in over a century. Check it out here!
6 May 2024: Many congratulations to Benjamin C. Klementz, who passed his qualifying and preliminary exams with flying colors!
19 April 2024: Congratulations to our undergraduate Ethan Laumer, who won the prestigious Hilldale Research Fellowship from UW-Madison! This award will support Ethan's research on the evolution of the Pax gene family in daddy-longlegs this summer.
25 March 2024: Guilherme's work on harvestman eye evolution is featured in an on-air interview on Wisconsin Public Radio and on the cover of Current Biology! What a rush!
1 March 2024: The lab is charmed to see Guilherme's work on harvestman eye evolution featured in UW-Madison News and in The New York Times!! Congratulations to everyone involved in the work!
23 February 2024: The lab exults today in publishing the discovery that living daddy-longlegs have six eyes, a finding with profound implications for harvestman fossils, phylogeny, molecular dating, and arthropod eye evolution writ large. Congratulations Guilherme Gainett and other students who led this work. Check it out here!
10 January 2024: Many, many congratulations to Dr. Siddharth Kulkarni, who has been awarded a prestigious and highly selective Ramanujan Fellowship!! This pathway-to-independence award will enable Siddharth to establish a new research group at a university in India through support from the central government of India. Check it out here!
7 January 2024: The whole lab attended the annual Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in Seattle! We saw some excellent talks, encountered new and thought-provoking directions for research, and got into a raucous and viscerally fun debate with Mark Martindale. This year, Prashant takes over as Chair of the Division of Evolutionary Developmental Biology.
22 January 2025: Welcome to Erika Garcia, the newest addition to our team! Erika joins the lab for a three year postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Science Foundation. Check out her profile here!
13 January 2025: Many congratulations to Dr. Joseph Sardina Jr. on a formidable and exemplary thesis dissertation defense! After the completion of his thesis, JoJo is on his way to a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford.
18 December 2024: Prashant is delighted to be invited to join the teaching faculty of the legendary Woods Hole MBL embryology course in summer 2025! Fun fact: The Phalangium opilio harvestman model system was founded in summer 2009 in the parking lot behind Swope!
10 December 2024: Prashant is humbled and privileged to be awarded a Vilas Mid-Career Investigator Award! This prize supports new research directions in our lab over the next three years.
22 November 2024: The lab is delighted to have collaborated in the release of the first chromosome-level sea spider genome on bioRxiv! Check it out here! Congratulations to Niko Papadopoulos and Georg Brenneis, who led the work, as well as lab alumni Siddharth Kulkarni and Emily Setton, who contributed data for the Maine population of the species.
11 November 2024: We are ecstatic about the release of the first vinegaroon (whip scorpion) genome! Analysis of this chromosome-level resource shows the signature of an ancient, pre-Silurian whole genome duplication. Check it out here! Congratulations to Siddharth Kulkarni and Benjamin Klementz on the work!
5 September 2024: Many congratulations to Benjamin Klementz, who led a multinational team to resolve the origin of a new segment in the chelicerate leg! This work, which features developmental genetic data from daddy-longleg, mite, tick, pseudoscorpion, solifuge, and sea spider models, unites phylogeny and development to show how changes in the expression of ancient genes can create new leg segments. We are especially excited to bring the first multiplexed in situ data for several of these model species into the game, thanks to the efforts of collaborators in Nevada, Pennsylvania, Argentina, and Vienna. Check it out here!
29 August 2024: The lab is thrilled to publish Emily Setton's dissertation work on a new gene that patterns the spider waist in PLoS Biology! The lab has officially discovered and named its first gene--say hello to waist-less! Check it out here!
26 August 2024: Welcome to Tom Coyne, a new Ph.D. student in the lab! Tom joined us in the early summer to get his feet wet in arachnid development.
6 May 2024: Many congratulations to Kaitlyn Abshire on completing her qualifying and preliminary exams! Next stop: Woods Hole MBL!!
12 May 2024: The lab is delighted to publish the first higher-level molecular phylogeny of Amblypygi (whip spiders)! This international collaboration was precipitated by the discovery of a relictual lineage of whip spiders that had not been collected in over a century. Check it out here!
6 May 2024: Many congratulations to Benjamin C. Klementz, who passed his qualifying and preliminary exams with flying colors!
19 April 2024: Congratulations to our undergraduate Ethan Laumer, who won the prestigious Hilldale Research Fellowship from UW-Madison! This award will support Ethan's research on the evolution of the Pax gene family in daddy-longlegs this summer.
25 March 2024: Guilherme's work on harvestman eye evolution is featured in an on-air interview on Wisconsin Public Radio and on the cover of Current Biology! What a rush!
1 March 2024: The lab is charmed to see Guilherme's work on harvestman eye evolution featured in UW-Madison News and in The New York Times!! Congratulations to everyone involved in the work!
23 February 2024: The lab exults today in publishing the discovery that living daddy-longlegs have six eyes, a finding with profound implications for harvestman fossils, phylogeny, molecular dating, and arthropod eye evolution writ large. Congratulations Guilherme Gainett and other students who led this work. Check it out here!
10 January 2024: Many, many congratulations to Dr. Siddharth Kulkarni, who has been awarded a prestigious and highly selective Ramanujan Fellowship!! This pathway-to-independence award will enable Siddharth to establish a new research group at a university in India through support from the central government of India. Check it out here!
7 January 2024: The whole lab attended the annual Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in Seattle! We saw some excellent talks, encountered new and thought-provoking directions for research, and got into a raucous and viscerally fun debate with Mark Martindale. This year, Prashant takes over as Chair of the Division of Evolutionary Developmental Biology.