Principal Investigator
Marc Tollis, Ph.D. (Biology: Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior), City University of New York (2013)
Associate Professor, School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University
My overarching research question is: how have genomes evolved to produce the diversity of life? I use evolutionary biology and genomics to help understand species diversification, what processes generate observed genomic patterns across life, and the genetic basis of phenotypic traits, including resistance to diseases such as cancer. To carry out this work, I investigate comparative genomics, population genomics, and phylogenetics of vertebrates using large genomic, phenotypic, ecological, and pathological datasets. I develop methods in genome sequencing, assembly, annotation, bioinformatics, and comparative and statistical analysis to generate testable models and address questions within evolutionary biology and medicine, and apply these models across multiple scales from cells, to populations, on up to species. One goal of the lab to maintain a productive and positive research training environment for undergraduate and graduate students.
While we are interested in all vertebrates, there is a soft spot for reptiles in the lab :-)
Postdocs, Graduate Students, and Scholars
Current
Vahid Nikoonejad Fard, Ph.D. candidate in Informatics, NAU
Vahid has a Masters degree in Animal Genetics from the University of Tehran and started in the lab in 2021. He is researching comparative genomics of cancer resistance across vertebrates, mainly mammals.
John Neddermeyer, Ph.D. (2024) Biology, NAU, postdoc in comparative genomics
Dr. Neddermeyer started in the lab in December 2024 and will be primarily responsible for comparative genomics methods and developing the tools with our collaborators to coestimate rates of genomic and phenotypic evolution for our NSF-funded squamate project.
Sergei Kosushkin, PhD (2006), Russian Academy of Sciences, American Research Scholar, U.S. Fulbright Program
Dr. Kosushkin is a skilled bioinformatician conducting a 6-month residency in the lab starting September 2025. He is developing new tools that identify and classify SINE retrotransposons in squamate genomes. We look forward to a productive international collaboration with him!
Former POSTDOCs/GRADUATE STUDENTs (and now, colleagues!)
Simone Gable, Ph.D. Informatics, NAU (2024)
Dr. Gable defended her dissertation on phylogenomics and genome evoluton in reptiles in July 2024 and is currently a postdoc for the Earth Biogenome Project at Arizona State University. We miss her but we still work a lot with her!
Daniel Chavez, PhD (UCLA), former postdoc (2021-2023)
Daniel has expertise in genome sequencing, assembly, bioinformatics, and evolutionary genetics and worked with us on the comparative genomics projects of the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center. He is now a professor at Universidad Indoamérica in Ecuador. We still work extensively with Daniel on multiple comparative oncology projects.
Sophie Matthews, PhD student (University of Galway)
Sophie spent an extremely productive autumn 2023 in the lab at NAU as a visiting international student. She quickly learned mammalian comparative genomics to investigate the relationship between gene copy number and cancer prevalence across species, and we published a paper together just a year later!
Jolten Larremore, MS (2021) Informatics, NAU
During his masters degree, Jolten studied the molecular evolution of tumor suppressor genes as well as helped start a project we call “The Blubber Project”, looking at cholesterol pathway genes and genes involved in human cardiovascular disease across marine mammals.
Undergraduate Students
CURRENT
Nicholas Osborn, EEB major, Honors College
Nicholas started Fall 2025 as a freshman working on a project merging phenotypic and genomic datasets we will use to test hypotheses about phylogeny and limb reduction in skinks (Scincidae).
Emma Hagen (NAU class of 2026)
Emma is majoring in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and has joined the lab in summer 2025, working on a funded project developing ecological niche models for various projects as well as training other students.
Lab alumni
Asterisk indicates student was funded by Interns 2 Scholars, double asterisk indicates competitive NAU research awards.
Rebecca Chavez** (BS Informatics), graduated 5/2024
Nicholas Bushroe** (BS Microbiology, minor in Informatics), graduated 5/2024
Emma Kozel* (BS Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UCERT in Wildlife Management), transferred to Oregon State in 2024
Jasmine Mendez** (BS Biology,), graduated 5/2023
Sienna Hatfield (NAU class of 2025)
Sienna graduated with a major in biology and a minor in environmental studies. She worked on number of funded projects that helped develop the ecological genomics methods in our lab.
Adam Wilson**
Adam majored in Mathematics and Biomedical Sciences with a minor in Philosophy at NAU. He is currently researching transposable element evolution across squamates, using bioinformatics analysis tools and software. In his free time, he likes to read fantasy novels about dragons and practice adventure photography. Adam transferred to Johns Hopkins University in 2022.
Alyssa Santos
Dakotah Gerlach
Joshua Wingert
Payton Smith**
We Want People! Join the Tollis Lab @ NAU
We are actively recruiting students to conduct research in the lab. Projects range from elephant and whale population genomics, transposable element evolution, cancer evolution, and molecular evolution in reptiles. These projects offer an opportunity to better understand biodiversity and the origins of human disease, and training in valuable skills in bioinformatics and high-throughput next-generation sequence data analysis for careers in many sectors.
Undergraduate students can pursue a B.S. in Informatics with a bioinformatics emphasis. Graduate students would join the Ph.D. program in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems or the M.S. Program in Informatics and earn a valuable degree in informatics while focusing on bioinformatics and molecular evolution in the lab. Our school includes distinguished faculty in eco- and environmental informatics as well as health and bioinformatics.
Come live and work here! Flagstaff, AZ has been rated one of the happiest cities in America, with four seasons, year-round recreation, terrific college vibe, and a laid-back attitude. We are close to the Phoenix metropolitan area, but even closer to Sedona and the Grand Canyon, and are surrounded by mountainous national forest.
JOIN THE LAB
If you would like to join the lab, fill out the form below and we will get back to you.