Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne ^{Research Labs}

Research in the Department of Ecology and Evolution is mainly focused on linking the evolution of animal development to genome evolution. The group develops database for evolutionary biology, and studies genome evolution in vertebrates. The group is also involved in targeted projects in functional genomics. Gene and genome duplication are considered major mechanisms in the creation of new functions in genomes, or in the refinement of networks by the division of function among more genes. The group members are especially interested in the genome duplications which occurred in the Paleozoic, in the ancestor of vertebrates and in the ancestor of teleost fishes. They are also interested in characterizing patterns of positive selection, especially ancient and rare events.