Araxi Urrutia

I’m interested in the evolution of genes and genomes and how it impacts on the evolution of phenotypes. My research projects relate to the study of gene transcription changes during evolution and disease states and the evolution of gene and genome’s sequence, structure and organisation.

How and what drives gene expression evolution and what are the consequences of particular gene activity levels? Gene activity regulation is a major factor for understanding normal processes of development and senescence, disease states, and how individuals learn and cope with environmental events. Changes in gene activity are also thought to account for a large proportion of the differences in phenotype observed between species. Current research projects revolve around the following questions: Are the properties of highly expressed genes the result of ongoing selective pressures within mammalian lineages? What variables modulate patterns of gene activity divergence on a genomic scale? How do changes in gene context after gene duplication or genomic rearrangements affect gene transcription? Is gene expression noisy and is most co-expression a consequence of such noise owing to chromatin remodeling? What is the effect of repeats
insertion on gene regulation? To address these and related questions, I analyse large scale datasets using comparative genomics approaches and bioinformatics tools.

I am always happy to hear from prospective graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, for more information please go to: http://people.bath.ac.uk/au207/