Virology in the SARS-CoV-2 era

Coordinated by: Denis J. Machado and Susana Ortíz B.

KEYNOTE

Pathogen spillover: lessons learned from emerging bat viruses

Raina Plowright    Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, USA

Dr. Plowright investigates the dynamics of disease systems that connect human and animal populations. She is trained as an infectious disease ecologist, epidemiologist, and wildlife veterinarian. Her research focuses on the dynamics of zoonotic pathogens in wildlife populations, the transmission of pathogens across species barriers, and links between environmental stressors and pathogen emergence. Her group focuses on WHO priority pathogens that are emerging from bats into humans, including henipaviruses and coronaviruses, as well as other wildlife-pathogen systems with human health and conservation implications. Dr. Plowright leads a collaboration of > 70 scientists (www.batonehealth.org), funded by NSF and DARPA, working to prevent pathogen transmission from bats to humans. This group, spread across five continents, has ongoing field studies in Australia, Bangladesh, Madagascar, and Ghana.

TALKS

Early response to COVID-19 using genomics and phylogenetics

Anderson Brito    Yale University, ​New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

I am a virologist/bioinformatician. I hold a BSc degree (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of Brasília (UnB), a MSc degree in Microbiology from the University of São Paulo (USP), and a PhD in Computational Biology from Imperial College London. Currently I am a postdoctoral associate at the Yale School of Public Health, based at Grubaugh Lab, investigating the emergence, transmission, and evolution of viruses. My early research was mostly related to virology and genomics, when my work was mainly focused on next generation sequencing, assembly and analyses of large DNA virus genomes. Later on, my research focus slightly changed, when I started developing and applying integrative approaches to understand viral evolution by combining DNA/Protein sequences, protein domain architectures, protein structures and mainly phylogenetics. More recently, to contribute to understanding issues directly affecting people’s life, in my Postdoc at Yale I apply my multidisciplinary expertise to study the epidemiology of viruses, investigating the spatial-temporal spread of viruses using computational tools.

Genomic epidemiology during a pandemic: lessons learned about open-source tool development, data sharing, and partnership building

Sidney Bell    Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative/NextStrain

Dr. Bell is a virologist and genomic epidemiologist. Her previous research focused on how viruses cross species, spread through populations, and evolve antigenically. She now works to accelerate science by supporting fellow researchers through her role at the philanthropic Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where she develops open-source scientific software and advocates for open science practices. Dr. Bell currently works on Nextstrain, an open-source platform for visualizing, exploring and sharing pathogen genomic analyses to aid outbreak response. She also works with COVIDTracker, a partnership with California Departments of Health to bring modern genomic epidemiological tools into public health departments across the state. 

Understanding SARS-CoV-2 Quasispecies via Long-Read Next-Generation Sequencing

Daniela Mónaco    Emory University. Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Dr. Monaco investigates the interplay between pathogens and their human host, focusing in HIV-infected individuals. She is trained as a virologist and an immunologist and she applies cutting edge technologies to understand how HIV adapts to the immune response and how these changes shape the course of the disease. She has applied these technologies to the study of multiple cohorts of HIV-infected individuals around the world as well as to other focuses, such as human genes and other viruses. In the wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, she is working in a project that aims at evaluating the intra-patient diversity of SARS-CoV-2 during COVID-19 infection using SMRT sequencing.

Phylogenomics of Orthocoronavirinae: evolutionary relationships between coronaviruses and their hosts.

Denis Jacob Machado    UNC Charlotte. Charlotte, North Carolina. USA.

Dr. Jacob Machado is a bioinformatician and a phylogeneticist. His goal as a researcher is to bridge the gap between basic research and applied bioinformatics. He is involved in a range of research projects, from viral genome annotation and evolution to comparative genomics of non-model organisms. Currently, he works as a postdoctoral researcher at Dr. Daniel Janies' lab (https://janieslab.github.io/people.html). Dr. Jacob Machado is being supported by the NIH to investigate echinoderms genomes like sea cucumbers and brittle stars and develop genomic and experimental resources to study regeneration. He is also interested in the phylogenomics of different viruses, ranging from dengue virus to SARS-CoV-2 (which causes COVID-19).

Visualizing transmission networks of pathogens using phylogenetic data with StrainHub.

Colby T. Ford    UNC Charlotte. College of Computing and Informatics. USA.

Colby T. Ford, Ph.D. is an associate faculty member of the School of Data Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and is a bioinformatics researcher in the Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics. He performs research in the realms of human genomics and infectious diseases and applies concepts from cloud computing, distributed computing, and machine learning to help along the way. Outside of academia, Colby is a cloud artificial intelligence architect at BlueGranite, a top-tier Microsoft and Databricks partner.

Paleontology and phylogenetics

Coordinated by: ​Ana Adruchow-Colombo, Nadia Haidr and Andrés Elgorriaga

KEYNOTE

Towards integrative phylogenetic research: Combining genomic, phenomic and fossil data to explore the evolutionary history of sea urchins

Nicolás Mongiardino Koch    Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Yale University, Connecticut, USA

My research lies in the intersection of phylogenomics and phylogenetic paleobiology. I focus on resolving the interrelationships of living and extinct echinoids (sea urchins, heart urchins and sand dollars) by integrating genomic, morphological and stratigraphic information. These comprehensive phylogenies are then used to explore macroevolutionary dynamics across deep timescales. I also use simulations to explore the behavior of different methods of phylogenetic inference. I received my bachelor’s degree from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and am currently seeking a PhD from Yale University (USA).

TALKS

Molecular timetrees and the macroevolution of plants: open questions and potential solutions

Mario Coiro    Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.

My research interest lies in the evolution of form and function through macroevolutionary time. I try to integrate extant data from molecules and development with fossils to try and identify not only the patterns but also the mechanistic bases of morphological evolution in plants. I have worked and continue to work on the evolutionary history of the Cycadales, the early evolution of the angiosperms, the integration of fossil data in the phylogeny of the seed plants, as well as the methodological issues surrounding morphological phylogenetics. I received my Doctorate from the University of Zurich, and I am currently working as a PostDoc at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Multiple tools on phylogenetic analyses to assess the macroevolutionary history of the Carditidae as an example for the study of fossil and living bivalve evolution

Damián Pérez    Instituto Patagónico de Geología y Paleontología, CCT-CENPAT-CONICET, Puerto Madryn, Argentina

My main research interest is the systematics, shell morphology, macroevolutionary trends and phylogenetic relationships of bivalves, focusing on both, fossil and living taxa. The target group of my research is the Carditidae, a group of non-siphonated bivalves with an interesting worldwide fossil record from the Triassic to the present. Using different tools as geometric morphometrics, phylogenetic and disparity analyses, I try to understand the processes and events occurring throughout the evolution of these species. Other parallel research interests are the fossil record of asterozoan echinoderms in Patagonia and the philosophical basis of Paleontology. I took my bachelor and doctoral studies at the University of Buenos Aires, and my PhD and Posdoc were at Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia". Currently, I am working as assistant researcher at Instituto Patagónico de Geología y Paleontología at Puerto Madryn, Argentina.

Importancia De Los Estudios Neontológicos En Sistemática Filogenética Y Macroevolución

María Victoria Fernández Blanco    División Paleontología Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina.

My main interest is to understand the morphological variation of the skeleton of post-hatching specimens of sauropsids studying the embryonic origin of each skeletal structure. I work at the División Paleontología Vertebrados of the Museo de La Plata and did my PhD and postdoc in that institution. During the last years, I have been analyzing qualitatively and quantitatively the inter- and intraspecific morphological variation of the skeleton of the two species of Argentinian crocodilians, Caiman latirostris and C. yacare, in order to contribute to the knowledge of the evolutionary history of South American alligatorids. I also worked with fossil archosaurs, studying different skeletal elements in extant and fossil species and interpreting their homologies. Nowadays, I focus my attention especially in macroevolutionary studies of skeletal elements of different sauropsid clades, through the study of the pre-hatching ontogeny of extant species (e.g., crocodiles, saurians, turtles) to clarify certain queries concerning the identity, shape and variation of bones in fossil forms (primary homology hypothesis). 

Importance of morphology and fossils in macroevolutionary studies: a case study from Zingiberales

Selena Smith    University of Michigan. Michigan. USA.

My research focuses on using the fossil record of plants to better understand plant evolution, paleobiodiversity, and past environments, with a particular interest in Cretaceous and Paleogene floras, the importance of morphology, and taxonomy. I largely focus on monocot flowering plants (such as gingers, bananas, palms, and sedges) but also work on groups such as ferns and conifers. I earned my B.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Alberta. I was then a Royal Society postdoctoral researcher in the UK, where I started using synchrotron-based and industrial microCT methods to unlock more information from the plant fossils themselves, and this is now a core technique in much of my research today. I am now an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.

Diversity and phenotypic evolution

Coordinated by: Jimena Grosso, Héctor Tejero-Cicuéndez and Alejandra Pardo M.

KEYNOTE

Are diversity and disparity linked through time or space? ​

Miriam L. Zelditch   ​Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, MI, USA.

My studies, in collaboration with Donald Swiderski, focus on the evolutionary dynamics of mammalian skeletal morphology.  Our focus has been on the lower jaw, a developmentally and morphologically complex structure.  Our objectives are to explain why jaw morphology has strikingly different patterns of evolution in different lineages of rodents – some that are nearly static over millions of years but  occasionally give rise to highly divergent specialists; others that have undergone more frequent and varied divergence events, including occasional radiations.  Such contrasting patterns could arise from lineage-specific intrinsic contrasts, such as differences in the structure or strength of developmental modularity, or from divergent histories of adaptation to different diets.  To sort out these possibilities, we use geometric morphometrics to quantify morphology and its modularity, and phylogenetic comparative methods to analyze the evolutionary dynamics of size and shape.

TALKS

Homoplastic eyespots and hyperdiverse slugs: elucidating phenotypic evolution in different lineages of Lepidoptera

Ivonne Garzón-Orduña     ​Universidad Autónoma de México, México DF, México.

Ivonne studies Neotropical Lepidoptera and uses phylogenetic systematics to improve taxonomies and to elucidate character transformations within and between taxa. Her current research focuses on different groups of moths and includes, determining the significance of color variation in caterpillars of the family Limacodidae, the evolution of eyespots in Geometridae and the diversity of Mexican Epipleminae (Uraniidae). She has a PhD in Conservation Biology from the University of New Orleans and currently works as the Lepidoptera curator in Mexico’s National Insect Collection which is housed at the Biology Institute inside UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) in México City.

Metamorphosis as a driver of morphological diversity in Salamanders

Anne-Claire Fabre    London Natural History Museum, ‎Kensington & Chelsea‎, ‎London‎, UK.

Anne-Claire Fabre is an early-career evolutionary biologist and functional morphologist focusing primarily on shape evolution in an extensive range of vertebrate study systems. Her research on macroevolution is highly integrative and is heavily collections and field-based, linking different research areas in biology in order to understand the evolution of the shape of a structure in relation to its development, function, and behaviour. She has previously conducted her work while funded by highly-competitive fellowships from the Fyssen Foundation and the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme, and she is currently a research co-investigator in the Department of Life Sciences at the Natural History Museum in London. With her diverse experience in experimental, computational, and field systems and broad expertise in comparative evolutionary biology, functional morphology, and morphometrics she has recently initiated a project investigating the impact of developmental strategy on morphological evolution in salamanders. More precisely, she is testing the impact of metamorphosis on the origin of phenotypic diversity in salamanders. This involved quantifying skull shape modularity and evolution across salamanders and she is now extending it to both the feeding and locomotor systems as well as the functional diversity during ontogeny. For more information about her research, you can visit her website: http://anne-claire-fabre.weebly.com/

How to be a giant shark

Catalina Pimiento    Swansea University. Swansea. UK.

Catalina is a paleo-biologist working on sharks and marine megafauna. She is particularly interested in their evolutionary patterns, macroecology, extinction and conservation. She also have a strong interest in formal and informal science education and public outreach. Catalina did her bachelor degree in Biology in the Universidad Javeriana, in Bogota, Colombia. She then obtained her masters and PhD from the University of Florida. She has been a postdoctoral fellow in the Museum of Paleontology in Zurich (Switzerland), the Naturkunde museum in Berlin (Germany), and Swansea University (UK). She is currently a research associate at Swansea University, the University of Zurich and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama).

Identifying genetic mechanisms underpinning eye loss in troglomorphic arachnids

Prashant P. Sharma    Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA. 

My research program broadly addresses macroevolution of invertebrates through the lenses of phylogenomics, historical biogeography, and comparative development, with emphasis on chelicerate arthropods (e.g., spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs). Members of my research group investigate how biodiversity is distributed in time and space, how different phylogenetic data classes inform intractable parts of the tree of life, and what genetic mechanisms underlie body plan diversification. I received my PhD from Harvard University in 2012 and completed postdoctoral training at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 2015. 

Phylogenomics and molecular evolution

Coordinated by: Cinthy L. Jiménez S. and Ambrosio Torres

KEYNOTE

Efficient Bayesian Multi Species Coalescent with BEAST 2

Remco Bouckaert    ​The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. 

Remco Bouckaert is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland. Bouckaert is an expert in Bayesian phylogenetics/phylogeography, developing new statistical and computational techniques with applications in bioinformatics, evolutionary biology and cultural evolution. Bouckaert is the main software architect of BEAST 2, and co-author of the book "Bayesian evolutionary analysis with BEAST".  

TALKS

Species Tree Inference with ILS-Aware Methods for Retroelement Insertions

Mark Springer    University of California, Riverside, USA.

Mark Springer is an American biologist who has made major contributions to the understanding of mammalian evolutionary history. In particular, he has studied the phylogenetic relationships among and within the orders in the mammalian tree of life. His research includes, among others: pioneering studies in the evolutionary history of bats and the origin and evolution of echolocation; the reconstruction of character transformations for key innovations in mammals; the use of genomic data to unravel the root of the placental mammal phylogeny; the integration of plate tectonic events, fossil and molecular data to identify biogeographic and evolutionary patterns in mammals, such as diversification rates, extinction processes and morphological adaptations. In addition, he has studied methodological biases in phylogenetic inference; especially those related with incomplete lineage sorting, homoplasy and homology errors, support in species-tree methods and fossil calibrations in dated phylogenies. He has published over 160 papers on these areas.

Figuring out the tips for macroevolutionary analyses

Craig Moritz    ANU Research School of Biology & Centre for Biodiversity Analysis, Canberra, Australia.

Prof. Craig Moritz is an evolutionary biologist who has been immersed in the study of lizards' evolution and speciation. Currently, he is the Director of the ANU-CSIRO-UC (Centre for Biodiversity Analysis) and Leader of  Evolutionary biogeography & conservation group at the Australian National University. His research is focused on understanding the evolutionary processes that generated species diversity and how this knowledge can inform conservation under rapid environmental change, implementing genomics, phylogenetics, and spatial environmental analysis. Additionally, His lab studies how species respond by migration or adaptation which is key to finding strategies to promote the persistence of biodiversity. They have been particularly interested in implementing genomics and advanced statistical methods to understand species boundaries and relationships across the radiation of marsupial mammals.

Genomic evidence for recurrent genetic admixture during domestication of mediterranean olive trees (Olea europaea L.)

Irene Julca    Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 

My research focuses on the integration of genomic and transcriptomic data to study the patterns of gene conservation across species and organs, with a special focus on plants. I’ve been working with the genome of different organisms including species of the genus Olea, Oldenlandia, Prunus, Cucumis, Castanospermum, Penicillium, Myzus, and Cinara. I am an evolutionary biologist and bioinformatician. I’ve finished my PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, in the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), in the lab of Toni Gabaldón. My first postdoc was at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) and I am currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Mutwil lab (https://www.plant.tools/) at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Confidence and truth in phylogenomics

Rob Lanfear    The Australian National University, Canberra. Australia

Rob Lanfear is an evolutionary biologist with interests in developmental biology, molecular evolution, somatic mutation, genomics, and phylogenetics. He has an undergraduate degree in Ecology from Durham university in the UK, an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from Sussex University in the UK, and a PhD in developmental biology of cockroaches from the same place. In 2008 he moved to the Australian National University in Canberra to work on molecular evolution and phylogenetics. And except for a brief stint at Macquarie University from 2014-2016, he has never left. ​

Congruence and conflict in phylogenomics: inferring ancient gastropod relationships

Tauana Cunha    Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

I am an evolutionary biologist interested in the evolution of marine invertebrates. My research is centered around phylogenies and the distribution of marine biodiversity in space and time, with gastropods as my group of expertise. Current work includes resolving ancient divergences, investigating population connectivity, and looking at genome evolution. I got a Bachelor's degree from the University of São Paulo (Brazil), a PhD from Harvard University (USA), and I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama).

Biogeography in the Neotropics

Coordinated by: Nicolás Hazzi, Iris Menéndez and J. Salvador Arias

KEYNOTE

Amazonia: landscape and species evolution in a deep time perspective

Carina Hoorn    Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, GE Amsterdam.
Carina Hoorn is a geologist/paleoecologist and associate professor at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). She holds an MSc (1988) and PhD (1994) from this university, and an MSc (2003) in Science Communication from Imperial College London (UK). Her main research interest is the Cenozoic evolution of biota and sedimentary environments in mountains and peripheral regions, such as the Andes-Amazonian system and the Tibeto-Himalayan region. 
She enjoys working in research teams, and together with her collaborators she studies the Neogene fossil plant record of western Amazonia, and the origin and stages of development of the Amazon River and the Amazon submarine fan. She is also fascinated by the Cenozoic evolution of steppe-desert plants, even more so after spending some time as a research fellow in Xinjiang province, westernmost China. More recently, her natural curiosity has driven her to explore the fossil record of Myanmar and Indonesia.

TALKS

Bird diversification and evolution of Amazonian landscapes

Camila Ribas    Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia Manaus, AM, Brazil. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA.

PhD from Universidade de São Paulo on molecular phylogeny and biogeography of Neotropical parrots. Postdoc at the Dept. of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, working with Dr. Joel Cracraft on Amazonian Biogeography. Researcher at Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, since 2009. Curator of the INPA Collection of Genetic Resources since its creation, in 2010. Head of the Graduate Course in Ecology at INPA since 2018. Interested in multidisciplinary approaches to Amazonian Biogeography and Conservation.

Hypotheses and drivers for the diversification of Andean tetrapods

Angela M. Mendoza-Henao    Departamento de Zoología. Instituto de Biología. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Ciudad de México, México.

Interested in a wide diversity of topics related to ecology and evolution of terrestrial vertebrates. I use tools such as molecular biology, bioacoustics and some geographic information systems. As fate would have it, I ended up acquiring more experience in amphibians and that has been my study group for most of my research. Biologist from the Universidad del Valle (Colombia), I traveled to Mexico twice to do my Master's degree (2011-2013) and PhD (2016-present) at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. My current work is focused on the drivers of call evolution in glassfrogs. Concerned about topics such as gender equity, scientific communication, open access to knowledge, research and education funding, biodiversity conservation and promotion of sustainable environmental practices.

Evolutionary and Ecological History of Falcons... macroevolutionary analysis with an emphasis in Neotropics.

Jonathan Pelegrin Ramírez     Área de Biología y Ciencias Ambientales / Universidad Santiago de Cali  y Departamento de Biología / Universidad del Valle, Colombia.

Paleobiologist specialized in Evolution, Ecology, and Taxonomy of Terrestrial Vertebrates, especially in bird lineages. Currently, my research lines are focus on speciation and environmental adaptation processes in diverse animal taxa, considering a historical and macroevolutionary context (Palaeontology) with an emphasis on the ecological interactions, conservation, and biogeographical patterns. Jonathan obtained his Biologist degree at Universidad del Valle (Colombia) and his Master and Doctor degree in Evolutionary Biology and Paleontology at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). Was Intern at Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panamá). Actually, is a member of the Paleoclimatology, Macroecology, and Macroevolution of Vertebrates (PMMV) (Spain) and the research group ECONACUA (Ecology and Aquatic pollution) from USC. Professor in the Biology and Environmental Sciences and Education Area at Universidad Santiago de Cali and Biology Department at Universidad del Valle (Colombia). Jonathan also has a broad interest in environmental education and scientific outreach.​

Searching for biogegrographic patterns in data with sample gaps and bias

Dr. Ubirajara Oliveira    Centro de Sensoriamento Remoto - UFMG.   Associate professor at the Postgraduate in Modelagem de sistemas ambientais  - IGC – UFMG and Associate professor at the Postgraduate in Zoologia – ICB - UFMG.
Dr. Ubirajara Oliveira is researcher in Centro de Sensoriamento Remoto - UFMG.   Associate professor at the Postgraduate in Modelagem de sistemas ambientais  - IGC – UFMG and Associate professor at the Postgraduate in Zoologia – ICB - UFMG.
He is mainly in the areas of Biogeography, Geoprocessing, Environmental Spatial Modeling, Scientific Divulgation and didactic material production. He holds a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (2006), a master's degree in Ecology Conservation and Management of Wildlife (2011) in Zoology (2015), post-doctorate in modeling at the Remote Sensing Center (2015 to 2017) by the same institution. He is currently a researcher at the Remote Sensing Center and associate professor at the Postgraduate in Environmental Systems Modeling and Analysis - IGC - UFMG.

Methods in phylogenetic inference

Coordinated by: Natalia González Piñeres, Juliette C. Gualdrón D. and Jorge Flores

KEYNOTE

A compromise approximation to inapplicable characters

Pablo A. Goloboff    Unidad Ejecutora Lillo, CONICET, Fundación Miguel Lillo. San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.

Pablo A. Goloboff  works on computational and methodological problems of phylogenetic analysis. He is the author of TNT, Nona, Pee-Wee, and other smaller programs. He has published about 100 papers, book chapters, and computer programs, on numerical cladistics, historical biogeography, and spider systematics.

TALKS

Collapsing dubiously resolved gene-tree branches in two-step coalescent analyses of phylogenomic datasets

Mark P. Simmons    Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. USA. 

As a systematic botanist, Mark's research program consists of two interrelated components: conceptual aspects of molecular phylogenetics, and systematics of the flowering-plant family Celastraceae (spindle-tree family).  Mark is a professor of biology and curator of the Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection at Colorado State University.

What are phylogenetic networks and why should we care?

Claudia Solis-Lemus    University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin. USA.

My research involves the development of statistical models to answer biological questions, balancing biological interpretability, theoretical guarantees, and computational tractability. In particular, my research deals with modern big data which are highly interconnected through graphical structures. Examples of my research involve the inference of phylogenetic networks to study reticulate evolution, comparative methods on networks to study the evolution of traits on hybrids, new sampling schemes to improve on Bayesian MCMC tools, as well as the application of such new tools to real-life datasets such as cultivated potato and carrot, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, human endogenous retroviruses among others. Next generation sequencing creates a big data reality that can make current methodologies prohibitive due to computational restrictions. My work produces a collection of new statistical methods with solid theoretical guarantees and efficient computational implementations that are adaptable to analyze the complex characteristics of modern big biological data.

Continual updating of evolutionary estimates in the Open Tree of Life with Physcraper

Luna Luisa Sánchez Reyes   School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced. California. USA.

I am a biologist specialized in evolutionary biology. I am currently working as a postdoc at the McTavish Lab, at the School of Natural Sciences of the University of California, Merced. My research interests include species diversification processes, timing of species origin, the intercept between micro and macroevolution, open science, and science communication and reproducibility. For the past few years, my research has focused on method and software testing and development for various NSF funded open science projects, including platforms such as Datelife, Phylotastic, and most recently the Open Tree of Life. You can follow my current work in software development to make available scientific information on time of origin of species on GitHub.

Bayesian analyses in phylogenetic palaeontology: Interpreting the posterior sample

April Wright    Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, Louisiana. USA.

Dr. April Wright is an assistant professor at Southeastern Louisiana University. Her lab works on phylogenetic methods, particularly for integrating fossils and molecular data to estimate dated trees. In particular, Dr. Wright’s research has focused on understanding and alleviating the model violation in discrete morphological data. As faculty at an undergraduate-serving institution, Dr. Wright also works on best practices for helping undergraduate learners gain experience with computational biology through coursework. For more information about Dr. Wright and her lab’s activities, please see https://paleantology.com/.

Techniques to incorporate genomic data from living species into phylogeny reconstruction of fossils without direct access to molecules

Robert Asher    Department of Zoology. University of Cambridge. UK.

RJA is originally from western New York State. He received a bachelor's degree from Hobart College (1991), PhD from Stony Brook University (2000), Master's degree from the University of Cambridge (2013) and since 2000 has worked as an evolutionary biologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, and the Museum of Zoology, Cambridge.