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The Yang Lab works on plant systematics and evolution.
We combine field and collection-based approaches with phylogenetics, transcriptomics, and genomics to:
A less technical description of what we do: By studying gene sequences and comparing specimens, we ask questions such as how do plant species relate to each other, and how did they evolve interesting adaptations such as the ability to survive deserts and mountain tops? |
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Lab News
- Mar 2020: Rebekah wins two competitive graduate student research grants: a Graduate Student Research Award from Society of Systematic Biologists, and a Thesis Research Travel Grant from the University of Minnesota. Congratulations!
- Feb 2020: Our NSF grant on metabolite evolution in Caryophyllales is funded! We are looking for a postdoctoral scholar to join the team!
- Jan 2020: Nan and Ya each gave a lightening talk at the Society of Systematic Biologists Standalone meeting in Gainesville, FL. Alex is in Ecuador for the Tropical Field Botany course, and Rebekah is heading to Australia for her 10-month Fulbright Fellowship visit at the Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
- Sep 2019: Alexandra Crum joins the lab as a Ph.D. student working on combining plant phylogenomics with ethnobotany. Welcome, Alex!
- Jun 2019: the entire lab (Diego, Rebekah, and Ya) went to the Evolution meeting in Providence, RI. Diego presented a talk on his Amaranthaceae phylogenomics project, and Rebekah presented a poster on chromosome evolution in Drosera.
- May 2019: Nan Lin, Ph.D. student at Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is awarded a China Scholarship Council fellowship for a 12-month visit to the lab. Welcome, Nan!
- May 2019: Rebekah passed her prelim exam with flying colors and is now officially a Ph.D. candidate. Congratulations, Rebekah!
- Oct 2018: Delphine Tefarikis (from Prof. Gudrun Kadereit's lab) is visiting from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. She is working with Diego Morales on reticulate evolution and C4 photosynthesis in Chenopods.
- Oct 2018: Ya participated in the ADBC summit in Gainesville, FL, to kick start the Endless Form TCN project digitizing specimens from families with specialized adaptations such as carnivory, succulence, epiphytes etc.
- Sep 2018: Diego and Ya visited Mexico City for the Caryophyllales 2018 meeting, each gave a talk, and co-taught a phylogenomic workshop with Mike Moore.
- Jul 2018: We had a blast at the Botany meeting in Rochester, MN with three talks (Mohn, Morales, and Yang) and one poster (Chen).
- Jul 2018: Rebekah had a busy summer. She collected Drosera in MT and ID right after finishing her OTS Tropical Plant Systematics course in Costa Rica.
- Jun 2018: Diego and Chen presented their work at the Society of Systematic Biologists meeting in Columbus OH.
- Jun 2018: Rebekah won two awards from the Botanical Society of America: the Triarch Botanical Images Travel Award and the Karling Award that supports the best graduate student research proposal. Congrats again!
- May 2018: Rebekah won the American Society of Plant Taxonomists' t-shirt contest with a beautiful drawing of the twinflower (Linnaea borealis). She also won the Bell Museum Natural History Awards to support her summer field research. With that she just finished a week-long trip collecting Drosera in the east coast. Congratulations!
- Mar 2018: Rebekah visited University of Michigan over the spring break to work with Stephen Smith on niche evolution in Drosera and participated in the Early Career Scientists Symposium.
- Jan 2018: Lab manager Yinyin Huang is accepted by her dream PharmD program at University of Minnesota, starting Fall 2018. Congratulations!
- Oct 2017: First lab trip! Missouri Botanical Garden Fall Symposium