Profile
Kara E Powder
Biological Sciences
Assistant Professor
864-656-3196
Life Sciences Building 55A [Office]
Life Sciences Building 60D [Lab]
Life Sciences Building 66 [Research Laboratory Service]
Educational Background
Ph.D., Molecular Genetics and Genomics, Washington University in St. Louis, 2011
B.S., Biology, Case Western Reserve University, 2004
Research Interests
The goal of the Powder lab is to understand the genomic and developmental origins of diversity, with particular emphasis on evolution and disease in the craniofacial system. To do this, we utilize natural morphological variation in cichlid fishes. Cichlids of the East African Rift Lakes have undergone an extraordinary adaptive radiation, and a hallmark of this is their unparalleled range of craniofacial morphologies, which correlates with their feeding mechanism (e.g. algae scraping or suction feeding). We integrate quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, genomics, geometric morphometric shape analysis, and experimental embryology to assess how genetic variation contributes to changes in gene expression and function and ultimately results in phenotypic variation in craniofacial structures.
Courses Taught
BIOL 4400 Animal Developmental Biology
BIOL 4930 Senior Seminar in Genomics
