Nicole King
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Genetics, Genomics, Evolution, and Development*
*And Affiliate, Division of Cell and Developmental Biology
Research Interests
The origin of animals represents one of the pivotal transitions in life’s history, and one of its greatest unsolved mysteries. While the fossil record remains silent regarding the rise of multicellularity, the genetic and developmental foundations of animal origins may be deduced from shared elements among extant animals and their protozoan relatives, the choanoflagellates. To better understand the origin and evolution of animals, we are:
- reconstructing the minimal genomic complexity of the unicellular progenitors of animals
- elucidating the ancestral functions of genes required for animal development
- characterizing the molecular mechanisms underlying choanoflagellate cell/developmental biology and the interactions between choanoflagellates and bacteria
Learn more at the lab website: kinglab.berkeley.edu
Selected Publications
**For an up-to-date list of lab publications, please visit Google Scholar**
Last Updated 2020-09-10