Chromosome and centromere evolution

The lab investigates how centromeres and chromosomes evolve, diversify, and function across the eukaryotic tree of life. To this end, we bridge cell biology, evolutionary genomics, and synthetic biology to map centromere diversity across eukaryotes, build synthetic chromosomes to empirically test centromere function and compatibility, and to explore how centromere evolution contributes to speciation.

Jana HELSEN, PhD