Meet the Team
Berta Verd, Group Leader
I am a somewhat unusual breed of biologist. A mathematician by training, I spent a year studying a Masters degree in sociology of science before moving into biology during my second Masters degree in Systems and Synthetic Biology at Imperial College, London. Through my Masters research, it became clear to me that interdisciplinary approaches held huge potential to help us understand the central problems in biology, and I've been hooked ever since. I moved to the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona to pursue a doctorate degree in evolutionary and developmental systems biology under the supervision of Dr. Johannes Jaeger. During my PhD I used data-driven mathematical modeling to study pattern formation during segment determination in flies. I developed mathematical tools to characterise gene expression dynamics, allowing us to compare these amongst different arthropod species. This work helped us understand how gene regulatory networks drive gene expression dynamics in developmental processes and shape their evolution. In October 2017 I joined the Steventon Lab in the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge as a Herchel-Smith Postdoctoral Fellow where I combined experimental embryology, microscopy and dynamical modelling to understand axial elongation and patterning in zebrafish and cichlid embryos. Since April 2020, I am the Associate Professor of Computational and Theoretical Biology in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, and a Tutorial Fellow in the Biological Sciences at Jesus College.
James Hammond. DPhil Candidate, NERC DTP
Shannon Taylor, DPhil Candidate, Clarendon Scholar
Callum Bucklow, DPhil Candidate, BBSRC DTP
I am a DPhil student in the Verd Lab, co-supervised by Prof Ruth Baker in the Mathematical Institute. For my DPhil project I am using a combination of computational modelling and experiments to investigate features of the segmentation clock that drive the high degree of evolvability we see in segment number across the vertebrates. Befor
I am a DPhil student in the Verd Lab, co-supervised by Prof Ruth Baker in the Mathematical Institute. For my DPhil project I am using a combination of computational modelling and experiments to investigate features of the segmentation clock that drive the high degree of evolvability we see in segment number across the vertebrates. Before coming to Oxford I studied for a BSc (Hons) in Biology and Mathematics at the University of St Andrews. Outside of my studies, I enjoy hill-walking, music, and lepidoptera.
Callum Bucklow, DPhil Candidate, BBSRC DTP
Shannon Taylor, DPhil Candidate, Clarendon Scholar
Callum Bucklow, DPhil Candidate, BBSRC DTP
I completed my integrated master’s degree in Biochemistry at King’s College London before moving to the University of Oxford for my doctoral research and joining the Verd lab. In collaboration with Dr Roger Benson (Curator at the American Museum of Natural History), I am investigating the macroevolutionary changes that have occurred in th
I completed my integrated master’s degree in Biochemistry at King’s College London before moving to the University of Oxford for my doctoral research and joining the Verd lab. In collaboration with Dr Roger Benson (Curator at the American Museum of Natural History), I am investigating the macroevolutionary changes that have occurred in the vertebral column of African cichlids during their diversification. Using phylogenetic comparative methods and geometric morphometrics, we can infer how vertebral counts and vertebral morphology, proxies for the developmental processes of somitogenesis and anterior-posterior patterning, are evolutionarily related and determine the rate and magnitude of change in these developmental mechanisms. In addition, I am investigating how variation in the vertebral column's structure can develop using two extremely closed-related but morphologically distinct species of cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi (Astatotilapia calliptera and Maylandia zebra). Both species form 30 vertebrae but have differing proportions of vertebral type, suggesting an evolutionary modification of anterior-posterior patterning since their divergence. I am currently generating lines of reciprocal hybrid crosses to identify genomic regions undergoing selection to drive the emergence of these phenotypic differences so that we have an integrated (i.e., causative) understanding of the relationship between the genetic mutations driving phenotypic diversity and macroevolutionary changes to developmental mechanisms.”
Shannon Taylor, DPhil Candidate, Clarendon Scholar
Shannon Taylor, DPhil Candidate, Clarendon Scholar
Shannon Taylor, DPhil Candidate, Clarendon Scholar
I am interested in how phenotypic diversity is produced during development, and to what extent this is controlled by genes. In my PhD I am studying Lake Malawi cichlids, in the lab of Dr Berta Verd. Cichlids are genetically very similar yet enormously morphologically diverse, varying in colour, size, shape, and somite/vertebrae number, ma
I am interested in how phenotypic diversity is produced during development, and to what extent this is controlled by genes. In my PhD I am studying Lake Malawi cichlids, in the lab of Dr Berta Verd. Cichlids are genetically very similar yet enormously morphologically diverse, varying in colour, size, shape, and somite/vertebrae number, making them an excellent system to study the causes of phenotypic diversity. I am investigating cell state transitions in the cichlid embryonic tailbud, where the somites are produced, using a combination of wet-lab developmental biology, microscopy and image analysis, and mathematical modelling.