Research
Making meaning in human variation
My research is on the genetics and evolution of hair and skin. I’ve developed lab protocols and computational pipelines for objectively measuring hair, and I use this and other information to improve our understanding of how differences in our biology (including our DNA) can create the variation we see in humans today.
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Hair morphology
I have developed methods for measuring hair morphology and worked on our understanding of the genetic architecture of this trait.
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Pigmentation (hair & skin)
I have used chemical methods to quantify melanin in hair and have worked on interpreting reflectance data in skin pigmentation in the context of genetic variation.
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Ancestry & Race
My research integrates a critical understanding of how framing and measuring phenotypes relates to genetic ancestry and ideas of race.