Hatchling rock pigeons (Columba livia)
Shapiro Lab News Archive
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2015 |
12/2015 |
New collaborative paper with the Yandell and Elde labs: Kronenberg Z, Osborne E, Cone K, Kennedy B, Domyan E, Shapiro MD, Elde NC, Yandell M. (2015) Wham: Identifying Structural Variants of Biological Consequence. PLoS Comput Biol 11: e1004572. Download the PDF here. |
11/2015 |
Mike and Elena talked pigeon genetics with museum visitors at the Natural History Museum of Utah's behind the scenes weekend. |
11/2015 |
Elena Boer joined the lab today as a postdoctoral fellow. Welcome! |
11/2015 |
Mike and Anna gave presentations to high school students at the U's annual Science Day. |
11/2015 |
We made our annual lab pilgrimage to collect samples at the Utah Pigeon Club Premier Show. Many thanks to all the hobbyists at the show for their enthusiastic support, assistance, and advice. |
11/2015 |
Mike was interviewed by KUTV and KSL-TV about our pigeon research and the new Pigeons exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah. |
10/2015 |
Mike gave an update on our research at the Latin American Society for Developmental Biology meeting in São Paulo, Brazil. |
9/2015 |
Kim Cooper and Mike's editorial for the Developmental Dynamics Special Issue on Evolution and Morphological Diversity is now published. |
9/2015 |
Mike finally caved and joined twitter: @MikeDShapiro |
9/2015 |
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9/2015 |
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8/2015 |
Nora Brown (Molecular Biology Program) is doing a first-year research rotation in our lab. |
8/2015 |
Congratulations to Sara Young, who was awarded an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program internship. |
8/2015 |
Congratulations to Tennyson George, who was awarded a Biology Undergraduate Research Program scholarship and will participate in the BioURP training program. |
8/2015 |
Eric Domyan completed his postdoctoral fellowship and is now an Assistant Professor at Utah Valley University. Congratulations, Eric! |
7/2015 |
Our NIH R01 grant to study developmental and genetic mechanisms of variation in vertebrates was funded! |
7/2015 |
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7/2015 |
S.A. Stringham, M.D. Shapiro. Microevolution and the genetic basis of vertebrate diversity: examples from teleost fishes. In K.P. Dial, N.H. Shubin, E.L. Brainerd (eds.), Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. |
6/2015 |
Citation: A.I. Vickrey, E.T. Domyan, M.P. Horvath, M.D. Shapiro. Convergent evolution of head crests in two domesticated columbids is associated with different missense mutations in EphB2. Molecular Biology and Evolution. Download the pdf here (if link doesn't work, try here). Check out the press release here. |
6/2015 |
Mike gave an invited talk at the Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists meeting. See the poster here. |
5/2015 |
Anna Vickery rescued an injured feral pigeon from a second-story ledge: read about it on Instagram. |
4/2015 |
Rebecca Bruders passed her qualifying exam and is now officially a Ph.D. Candidate. Congratuations, Rebecca! |
3/2015 |
Rebecca Bruders was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue her research on pigeon genetics and developmental biology. Congratuations, Rebecca! |
3/2015 |
Mike is a co-recipient (with Dr. Jennifer Heemstra, Chemistry) of the 2015 Myriad Genetics Award of Research Excellence. |
3/2015 |
Anna Vickrey was admitted to the MCEB graduate program and will be joining the lab as a graduate student! |
1/2015 |
Our colleage and collaborator Louisa Stark is the recipient of the 2015 Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education from Genetics Society of America! See the announcement here. |
1/2015 |
Tennyson George and Sara Young joined the lab as undergraduate researchers. |
|
2014 |
11/2014 |
Pigeonetics virtual pigeon breeder video game is now live! This project is a collaboration with the Genetic Science Learning Center. Click here to access the game directly, and here for a link to associated materials about inheritance of different traits in pigeons. |
11/2014 |
The inaugural University of Utah Molecular Evolutionary Genetics retreat was held at Deer Valley, and featured keynote talks by Doris Bachtrog (U.C. Berkeley) and John Willis (Duke). |
8/2014 |
Mike gave an update on the Dimensions of Biodiversity project (collaboration with Dale Clayton, Sarah Bush, and Kevin Johnson) at the 5th International Conference of Phthiraptera. Now we officially study pigeons and their parasites! |
7/2014 |
Mike gave an invited talk in the evo-devo symposium at the Society for Developmental Biology meeting in Seattle. |
6/2014 |
Another great pigeon video from Jim Jenner: "Young Wings." Check out the premier draft on vimeo. |
6/2014 |
Mike gave a talk in the Next Generation Genome Annotation and Analysis symposium at the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. |
5/2014 |
Congratulations to our new graduates, Anna Vickrey and Annah Frisch! Anna graduated with a bachelor's degree in Biology, and Annah was a double-major in Biology and Anthropology. |
4/2014 |
Congratulations to Dr. Sydney Stringham! Sydney successfully defended her Ph.D. disseration on April 30. |
4/2014 |
Marissa Burton was accepted into the summer Biology Undergraduate Research Program! |
4/2014 |
Rebecca Bruders has joined the lab to do her Ph.D. research. Welcome, Rebecca! |
4/2014 |
Sara Fauver was awarded a Myriad Genetics undergraduate scholarship -- congratuations, Sara! |
4/2014 |
Technician Mike Guernsey is leaving the lab and will attend graduate school in the Department of Developmental Biology at Stanford University in the Fall. He also received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratuations, Mike! |
3/2014 |
We received an NSF Reserach Experience for Undergraduates grant supplement to fund ongoing undergraduate research in the lab. |
3/2014 |
Just published: C.T. Miller, A.M. Glazer, B.R. Summers, B.K. Blackman, A.R. Norman, M.D. Shapiro, B.L. Cole, C.L. Peichel, D. Schluter, D.M. Kingsley. Additive and clustered quantitative trait loci control anatomically regional skeletal evolution in sticklebacks. Genetics 196: 10.1534/genetics.114.162420.. Access the paper here at the Genetics website. |
2/2014 |
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2/2014 |
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2/2014 |
Our paper on pigmentation genetics and genomics in pigeons was published online in Current Biology. This paper reports the identification of mutations in three genes that underlie major pigeon plumage color differences, and provides new insights about the molecular basis of dominance and epistasis. Domyan et al. (2014) Epistatic and combinatorial effects of pigmentary gene mutations in the domestic pigeon. Current Biology vol. 24. Get the pdf here. |
1/2014 |
Rebecca Bruders (Biology MCEB program) and Julia Carleton (Molecular Biology program) joined the lab as rotation students. |
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2013 |
9/2013 |
Mike is on sabbatical. |
9/2013 |
Undergraduate Anna Vickrey was awarded a prize in the graduate student poster competition at the annual U of U Biosciences Symposium. Congrats, Anna! |
9/2013 |
Congrats to Sara Fauver and Anna Vickrey! Both were awarded Fall inernships by the University Research Opportunities Program. |
8/2013 |
Just published: Guernsey MW, Ritscher L, Miller MA, Smith DA, Schöneberg T, Shapiro MD. (2013) A Val85Met Mutation in Melanocortin-1 Receptor Is Associated with Reductions in Eumelanic Pigmentation and Cell Surface Expression in Domestic Rock Pigeons (Columba livia). PLoS ONE 8(8): e74475. Get the pdf here. |
7/2013 |
Dimensions of Biodiversity collaboration among Dale Clayton, Sarah Bush, Kevin Johnson, and our lab was funded by NSF! |
7/13 |
Mike was an invited speaker at the Woods Hole MBL Embryology Course 120th anniversay symposium. |
7/13 |
Welcome, graduate student Cassandra Garner! Cassandra joined the lab after her first-year rotations in the Molecular Biology Program. |
7/13 |
Mike was promoted to Associate Professor. |
6/13 |
Former undergrad researchers Ashley Miller and Dave Record were admitted to medical school at the University of Utah. Congratulations Ashley and Dave! |
6/13 |
Sydney, Anna, and Mike G. presented their stickleback and pigeon research at the Society for the Study of Evolution annual meeting at Snowbird, Utah; Mike S. chaired the EDEN symposium on the Evolution of Gene Regulatory Networks. |
6/13 |
Eric presented his latest pigeon pigmentation genetics results at the Society for Developmental Biology annual meeting in Cancun, Mexico. |
6/13 |
Welcome, Kamala Ganesh! Kamala joins us from the Utah Summer Undergraduate Research Program. |
6/13 |
Marissa Burton joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher. |
5/13 |
Congrats to Sara Fauver and Anna Vickrey! Both were awarded summer inernships by the University Research Opportunities Program. |
4/13 |
Mike and Eric's "Quick Guide" to domestic pigeons appears in the April 24 issue of Current Biology. Click here to download the pdf. |
4/13 |
Anna Vickrey was awarded the 2013 Stephen D. Durrant Scholarship. Congratulations, Anna! |
3/13 |
Sydney is featured in a Science Cover Stories article for her Old Dutch capuchine cover photo in the March 1 issue. |
2/13 |
Mike gave the annual public Darwin Lecture at NYU. |
2/13 |
Casandra Garner joined the lab as a rotation student in the Molecular Biology Program. |
2/13 |
We hosted an outreach activity for the Society for Developmental Biology's "Choose Development" program. |
2/13 |
Eric and Anna presented their research at the Southwest Regional Society for Developmental Biology meeting. |
2/13 |
Check out Carl Zimmer's excellent article in the New York Times about our pigeon genetics research! The Times also published an educational activity to accompany the story. |
1/13 |
New publication in Science from our collaboration with Mark Yandell's lab, BGI, and the University of Copenhagen: Genomic diversity and evolution of the head crest in the rock pigeon. See the press coverage here. |
1/13 |
Eric Domyan has been awarded an NIH/NRSA postdoctoral fellowship - congratulations, Eric! |
1/13 |
Mike presented a pigeon-omics talk in the next-generation sequence annotation and analysis session at the Plant and Animal Genomes conference in San Diego. |
1/13 |
Della Fixsen joined the lab as a rotation student in the Molecular Biology Program. |
1/13 |
Mike and Anna presented new research at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual meeting in San Francisco. |
1/13 |
Sara Fauver joined the lab as an ACCESS researcher. |
|
2012 |
12/12 |
A figure from our Current Biology pigeon population genetics paper was chosen by WIRED as one of the Best Scientific Figures of 2012! |
10/12 |
Tylynn Bingham joined the lab as an undergradute researcher. |
9/12 |
Mike presented our most recent pigeon pigmentation genetics work at the Panamerican Society for Pigment Cell Research conference in Park City, UT. |
8/12 |
Sydney presented her stickleback genetics and genomics work at the Seventh International Stickleback Conference in Seattle. |
7/12 |
Mike, Sydney, and Krystle presented updates on pigeon and stickleback projects at the 1st Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology in Ottawa. |
7/12 |
Eric Domyan was awarded a position on the Developmental Biology Training Grant. Congratuations, Eric! |
6/12 |
Mike delivered the Nancy Rafferty Lecture in embryology at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA. |
6/12 |
Choryn Sundin joined the lab as a summer student in the Bioscience Summer Undergraduate Research Program. |
6/12 |
Sierra Johnson and Patrick Miller joined the lab as undergraduate research assistants. |
5/12 |
Anna Vickrey was awarded an NSF-sponsored EDEN summer internship. Congratulations, Anna! |
4/12 |
We received Research Experience for Undergraduate supplements to our NSF pigeon grant! |
4/12 |
Anna Vickrey was awarded the 2012 Stephen D. Durrant Scholarship. Congratulations, Anna! |
3/12 |
Kristin Fenker and Steven Flygare have joined the lab as rotation students in the Molecular Biology Program. |
2/12 |
Mike gave a "pub"lic presentation on our pigeon genetics research in the Science Night Live series at Keys on Main in downtown Salt Lake City. |
1/12 |
Excellent article and slideshow by Sarah Fecht about our pigeon research appears in Scientific American online. |
1/12 |
Our first pigeon genetics paper was published in Current Biology: Stringham, Mulroy, et al. (2012) Divergence, convergence, and the ancestry of feral populations in the domestic rock pigeon. See the University press release and video here. Other press coverage here. |
1/12 |
Daniela Chavez has joined the lab as a rotation student in the Molecular Biology Program. |
1/12 |
Mike's 5-year National Science Foundation CAREER award proposal on pigeon genetics has been funded! |
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2011 |
12/11 |
Our manuscript on population genetics and evolution of derived traits in domestic pigeons has been accepted for publication in Current Biology. |
11/11 |
Mike Shapiro and Richard Clark presented "Varying Genomes" to high school students from throughout the Intermountain West at the U's annual Science Day. |
10/11 |
Eric Domyan has joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow. |
7/11 |
Mike presented our pigeon population genetics research at the Gordon Conference on Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics. |
5/11 |
Congratulations to our graduating seniors: Elissa Mulroy, Dave Record, and Alex Tampio! |
5/11 |
Mike Guernsey was selected for an innaugural Myriad Genetics Scholarship and a University Research Opportunity Program internship. Congratulations, Mike! |
5/11 |
Just published in Standards in Genomic Sciences: A proposal to sequence the genome of a garter snake. (link to article) |
5/11 |
Krystle Minear has joined the lab as a graduate student from the EEOB program. |
4/11 |
Pigeon projects win big at the Salt Lake Valley Science & Engineering Fair! See our outreach page for details. |
4/11 |
Sydney Stringham was selected as a new trainee on the Genetics Training Grant. Congratulations, Sydney! |
3/11 |
Mike Shapiro was selected for a 2011 Early Career Teaching Award by the University Teaching Commitee. |
1/11 |
Sydney, Mike G., and Mike S. presented their stickleback and pigeon research at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. |
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2010 |
11/10 |
Mike Shapiro was recently interviewed by Developmental Dynamics for a review article on the evolution of development. See the abstract on PubMed. |
10/10 |
Matt Moulton has joined the lab as a rotation student in the Molecular Biology Program. |
9/10 |
The EDEN (Evo-Devo-Eco Network) Research Coordination Network website is up and running! Please visit to find out about the program and upcoming funding opportunities. |
9/10 |
Our paper on the phylogeography and evolution of derived traits in ninespine sticklebacks is now available from Molecular Ecology. Click to download the PDF (1.7 MB). |
8/10 |
Zev Kronenberg has joined the lab as a rotation student in the Molecular Biology Program. |
7/10 |
Our manuscript on the phylogeography and evolution of derived traits in ninespine sticklebacks was accepted for publication in Molecular Ecology. |
7/10 |
The new BioMed Central open access journal EvoDevo is now online. To visit the journal home page, click here. |
6/10 |
The EDEN (Evo-Devo-Eco Network) Research Coordination Network has been funded by NSF. Check back in September for links to information about the network and applying for funding. |
6/10 |
Mike and Sydney attended the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution in Portland and gave updates on our ongoing stickleback and pigeon research. |
5/10 |
Former undergraduate researcher Matt Miller will be attending medical school at the University of Utah starting this summer. Congratulations, Matt! |
4/10 |
Congratulations to Sydney Stringham for receiving an NSF TGLL (Teach Globally, Learn Locally) Fellowship! |
3/10 |
Congratulations to Elissa Mulroy and Alex Tampio for receiving Biology Department scholarships! |
1/10 |
Elena Boer has joined the lab as a rotation student in the Molecular Biology Program. |
1/10 |
Recurrent deletions of a Pitx1 enhancer are responsible for pelvic reduction in threespine sticklebacks. See the publication in Science or download from our publications page. |
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2009 |
11/09 |
Congratulations to undergraduate student Ashley "Bullseye" Miller for receiving a Utah Precision Marksmanship Society scholarship! |
10/09 |
Mike Shapiro was named to the editorial board of the new BioMed Central journal EvoDevo. |
9/09 |
Pigeons are faster than the internet! Read more from the BBC. |
8/09 |
We've known it all along: ninespine sticklebacks are geniuses! Read the BBC story here. |
8/09 |
Andres Romero-Carvajal has joined the lab as a rotation student in the Molecular Biology Program. |
7/09 |
Postdoc Jaci Aldenhoven and graduate student Sydney Stringham attended the 6th International Conference on Stickleback Behaviour and Evolution in Leicester, England. |
7/09 |
Mike Shapiro was announced as the new Secretary-Elect of the Division of Evolutionary and Developmental Biology in the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology. |
6/09 |
Pelvis has left the building: Current Biology paper on convergent evolution of pelvic loss and other traits in sticklebacks was published online this month. Click here to see the press release. |
5/09 |
Congratulations to graduate student Sydney Stringham for receiving an NSF TGLL fellowship! |
5/09 |
Congratulations to undergraduate student Elissa Mulroy for receiving a BioURP minigrant and UROP internship! |
5/09 |
Congratulations to undergraduate student Alex Tampio for receiving a BioURP minigrant and Departmental Continuing Student Scholarship! |
2/09 |
How is sex determined in stickleback fish? Collaborative paper with Katie Peichel’s lab was published in PLoS Genetics this month. Click here for PubMed listing or go to our publications page to download. |
Check out Lindsay Whitehurt's article about our pigmentation genetics work in the 
