Rethinking Evolution
Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis, associate professor, Department of Computational and Systems Biology
Carvunis shook the field of genomic evolution when she identified genes that were beginning to code for proteins within so-called “dark matter DNA.” In a landmark 2012 Nature paper, she showed that genes that were supposed to be doing nothing were, in fact, evolving. One of the most highly cited researchers in the field and the recipient of many awards, among them a 2021 Sloan Research Fellowship and a 2022 NSF CAREER Award, Carvunis asks one simple yet enormous question: What makes each species unique?
Studying the molecular mechanisms of physical change and innovation, Carvunis shows that traditional explanations of evolution may not be complete and that the story is not over.
“Organisms are always evolving. We have learned that we don’t know as much as we thought.”