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 2020-2021 (updated 18 August 2021):
18 August 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Ontano, the first Ph.D. awardee of the Sharma Lab! Andrew successfully defended his thesis on long branch attraction artifacts in the chelicerate tree of life. He will be joining the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the US Department of Agriculture as a bioinformatician.
6 August 2021: Congratulations again to Guilherme Gainett and Vanessa González, whose recent publication uncovering how daddy-long-legs make their long legs is featured in Nature, the New York Times, and National Public Radio! This research came up as a question in NPR's popular quiz show, "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me".
4 August 2021: The Sharma Lab is delighted to publish the first harvestman genome, a work appearing on the cover of Proceedings of the Royal Society B! This work, jointly led by Guilherme Gainett and genomicist Vanessa González (Smithsonian Institution) uncovers how daddy-long-legs make their long legs. Check out features of our work in The Atlantic, New Scientist, and Science!
2 August 2021: The Sharma Lab bids a bittersweet farewell this week to Dr. Jesús Ballesteros, who transitions to a faculty position at Kean University! "Chuy's" new lab will focus on the development of bioinformatic tools for evolutionary genomics. We'll miss you, professor!
15 June 2021: Welcome to Pola Błaszczyk, a new undergraduate member of the lab team!
1 June 2021: Welcome to Benjamin Klementz and Hugh Steiner, two new undergraduate members of the lab team!
27 May 2021: PI Sharma is delighted to receive a binational award from the US-Egypt Joint Board on Scientific and Technological Cooperation. This three-year grant from USAID/National Academy of Sciences supports a collaboration with researchers in Egypt to develop tools for harnessing scorpion venom genes of biomedical significance.
25 May 2021: Congratulations to Mahad Siad and Jakob Zehms on their admission to medical school! We'll miss you!
24 February 2021: Congratulations to Guilherme Gainett on winning the DEDB Best Student Presentation competition at SICB 2021!
11 February 2021: Congratulations to Emily Setton on the acceptance of her paper in Developmental Biology! Emily fused functional genetics with bioinformatic analysis of next-gen sequencing to decipher the role of the gene arrow in arthropod segmentation. PDF coming soon!
10 February 2021: Andrew Ontano resolves the placement of pseudoscorpions in the chelicerate tree of life, by fusing phylogenomics, genomes, and developmental genetics. Check out the work in Molecular Biology and Evolution here!
12 January 2021: Happy new year! The lab is delighted to kick things off with the release of the first harvestman draft genome. In this work, coauthored by our colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution, we were able to use this genomic resource to investigate how daddy-long-legs make their long legs. Check it out here!
18 December 2020: Congratulations to Guilherme Gainett, who won 2nd prize for best student talk at the Latin American Congress of Aracnology!
3 December 2020: The Sharma Lab is delighted to coauthor a work on the paleontology of armored harvestmen from Cretaceous amber! The new taxa in this study provide an array of badly-needed calibration points for Laniatores phylogeny. Check it out here!
23 November 2020: The Sharma and Gavish-Regev labs are delighted to publish the first functional dataset on the patterning of eyes in spiders! We were able to fuse collections-based research with evo-devo in the lab and discover a gene copy that makes spider eyes. Check it out here!
20 November 2020: The lab is delighted to release a study of pseudoscorpion phylogenetic placement that includes the first pseudoscorpion genome! This work, led by Andrew Ontano, suggests that pseudoscorpions are the sister group of scorpions. Check out the preprint here!
15 September 2020: The lab is delighted to release the first phylogenomic study of sea spiders! Our collaborative, international project, co-first authored by several students and postdocs from the lab, is featured in Science. Check it out here!
1 September 2020: Welcome to Dr. Caitlin M. Baker, a new postdoc in the Sharma Lab! Caitlin recently completed her Ph.D. at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard University). She is funded for three years to work with the lab on the genomics and evolution of arachnid eyes.
28 August 2020: The Sharma Lab is delighted to produce the first developmental and genomic resources for the study of Amblypygi! Resurrecting a model system last studied by the legendary Peter Weygoldt, Guilherme Gainett established a year-round colony, sequenced the first developmental transcriptome, and generated in situ hybridization data, of the whip spider Phrynus marginemaculatus. Check it out here!
15 August 2020: Many congratulations to our Dr. Efrat Gavish-Regev and her team on being awarded a competitive Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) grant! Our sister lab at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, is pursuing innovative approaches to deciphering the ecology of cave arachnids of Israel. Check out her work here!
15 August 2020: The lab is delighted to be awarded a National Science Foundation-Binational Science Foundation (NSF-BSF) grant in collaboration with Dr. Efrat Gavish-Regev of Hebrew University, Jerusalem! This four-year award, co-funded by NSF's IOS (Developmental Systems), DEB (Evolutionary Processes), and EDGE programs, supports our collaborative effort to discover the mechanisms of eye development and eye loss in troglomorphic arachnids of Israel--collections-based science meets evolutionary developmental biology!
04 July 2020: This fourth of July, the lab celebrates the release of our preprint on the first evo-devo whip spider model! Guilherme Gainett has worked tirelessly for the past three years on this high-risk system, resuming the pioneering efforts of Peter Weygoldt from the late 1970s on the species Phrynus marginemaculatus. Check it out here!
17 June 2020: The lab is delighted to be awarded a Binational Science Foundation grant in collaboration with Dr. Efrat Gavish-Regev of Hebrew University, Jerusalem! This three-year award will support biodiversity discovery and biogeographic study of Israeli cave arachnofauna.
22 May 2020: Many congratulations to soon-to-be Assistant Professor Carlos E. Santibáñez López, who will be starting a tenure-track position at Western Connecticut State University this fall! Carlos is a former postdoctoral fellow and ongoing research associate of UW-Madison. His research spans taxonomy, population genomics, and phylogenomics of scorpions and other venomous arthropods. Check out his new lab website, Aracnomics!
11 January 2020: The lab visits the annual Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in Austin, Texas, followed by a successful collecting trip for the elusive Prokoenenia wheeleri and Opilioacarus texanus! Prashant Sharma takes over this year as Divisional Secretary of Evolutionary Developmental Biology at SICB. Talks were given by Jesús Ballesteros, Andrew Ontano, and Emily Setton.
18 August 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Ontano, the first Ph.D. awardee of the Sharma Lab! Andrew successfully defended his thesis on long branch attraction artifacts in the chelicerate tree of life. He will be joining the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the US Department of Agriculture as a bioinformatician.
6 August 2021: Congratulations again to Guilherme Gainett and Vanessa González, whose recent publication uncovering how daddy-long-legs make their long legs is featured in Nature, the New York Times, and National Public Radio! This research came up as a question in NPR's popular quiz show, "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me".
4 August 2021: The Sharma Lab is delighted to publish the first harvestman genome, a work appearing on the cover of Proceedings of the Royal Society B! This work, jointly led by Guilherme Gainett and genomicist Vanessa González (Smithsonian Institution) uncovers how daddy-long-legs make their long legs. Check out features of our work in The Atlantic, New Scientist, and Science!
2 August 2021: The Sharma Lab bids a bittersweet farewell this week to Dr. Jesús Ballesteros, who transitions to a faculty position at Kean University! "Chuy's" new lab will focus on the development of bioinformatic tools for evolutionary genomics. We'll miss you, professor!
15 June 2021: Welcome to Pola Błaszczyk, a new undergraduate member of the lab team!
1 June 2021: Welcome to Benjamin Klementz and Hugh Steiner, two new undergraduate members of the lab team!
27 May 2021: PI Sharma is delighted to receive a binational award from the US-Egypt Joint Board on Scientific and Technological Cooperation. This three-year grant from USAID/National Academy of Sciences supports a collaboration with researchers in Egypt to develop tools for harnessing scorpion venom genes of biomedical significance.
25 May 2021: Congratulations to Mahad Siad and Jakob Zehms on their admission to medical school! We'll miss you!
24 February 2021: Congratulations to Guilherme Gainett on winning the DEDB Best Student Presentation competition at SICB 2021!
11 February 2021: Congratulations to Emily Setton on the acceptance of her paper in Developmental Biology! Emily fused functional genetics with bioinformatic analysis of next-gen sequencing to decipher the role of the gene arrow in arthropod segmentation. PDF coming soon!
10 February 2021: Andrew Ontano resolves the placement of pseudoscorpions in the chelicerate tree of life, by fusing phylogenomics, genomes, and developmental genetics. Check out the work in Molecular Biology and Evolution here!
12 January 2021: Happy new year! The lab is delighted to kick things off with the release of the first harvestman draft genome. In this work, coauthored by our colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution, we were able to use this genomic resource to investigate how daddy-long-legs make their long legs. Check it out here!
18 December 2020: Congratulations to Guilherme Gainett, who won 2nd prize for best student talk at the Latin American Congress of Aracnology!
3 December 2020: The Sharma Lab is delighted to coauthor a work on the paleontology of armored harvestmen from Cretaceous amber! The new taxa in this study provide an array of badly-needed calibration points for Laniatores phylogeny. Check it out here!
23 November 2020: The Sharma and Gavish-Regev labs are delighted to publish the first functional dataset on the patterning of eyes in spiders! We were able to fuse collections-based research with evo-devo in the lab and discover a gene copy that makes spider eyes. Check it out here!
20 November 2020: The lab is delighted to release a study of pseudoscorpion phylogenetic placement that includes the first pseudoscorpion genome! This work, led by Andrew Ontano, suggests that pseudoscorpions are the sister group of scorpions. Check out the preprint here!
15 September 2020: The lab is delighted to release the first phylogenomic study of sea spiders! Our collaborative, international project, co-first authored by several students and postdocs from the lab, is featured in Science. Check it out here!
1 September 2020: Welcome to Dr. Caitlin M. Baker, a new postdoc in the Sharma Lab! Caitlin recently completed her Ph.D. at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard University). She is funded for three years to work with the lab on the genomics and evolution of arachnid eyes.
28 August 2020: The Sharma Lab is delighted to produce the first developmental and genomic resources for the study of Amblypygi! Resurrecting a model system last studied by the legendary Peter Weygoldt, Guilherme Gainett established a year-round colony, sequenced the first developmental transcriptome, and generated in situ hybridization data, of the whip spider Phrynus marginemaculatus. Check it out here!
15 August 2020: Many congratulations to our Dr. Efrat Gavish-Regev and her team on being awarded a competitive Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) grant! Our sister lab at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, is pursuing innovative approaches to deciphering the ecology of cave arachnids of Israel. Check out her work here!
15 August 2020: The lab is delighted to be awarded a National Science Foundation-Binational Science Foundation (NSF-BSF) grant in collaboration with Dr. Efrat Gavish-Regev of Hebrew University, Jerusalem! This four-year award, co-funded by NSF's IOS (Developmental Systems), DEB (Evolutionary Processes), and EDGE programs, supports our collaborative effort to discover the mechanisms of eye development and eye loss in troglomorphic arachnids of Israel--collections-based science meets evolutionary developmental biology!
04 July 2020: This fourth of July, the lab celebrates the release of our preprint on the first evo-devo whip spider model! Guilherme Gainett has worked tirelessly for the past three years on this high-risk system, resuming the pioneering efforts of Peter Weygoldt from the late 1970s on the species Phrynus marginemaculatus. Check it out here!
17 June 2020: The lab is delighted to be awarded a Binational Science Foundation grant in collaboration with Dr. Efrat Gavish-Regev of Hebrew University, Jerusalem! This three-year award will support biodiversity discovery and biogeographic study of Israeli cave arachnofauna.
22 May 2020: Many congratulations to soon-to-be Assistant Professor Carlos E. Santibáñez López, who will be starting a tenure-track position at Western Connecticut State University this fall! Carlos is a former postdoctoral fellow and ongoing research associate of UW-Madison. His research spans taxonomy, population genomics, and phylogenomics of scorpions and other venomous arthropods. Check out his new lab website, Aracnomics!
11 January 2020: The lab visits the annual Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in Austin, Texas, followed by a successful collecting trip for the elusive Prokoenenia wheeleri and Opilioacarus texanus! Prashant Sharma takes over this year as Divisional Secretary of Evolutionary Developmental Biology at SICB. Talks were given by Jesús Ballesteros, Andrew Ontano, and Emily Setton.