DeWoody Lab-Purdue University

08/24/2026

PhD candidate Natalie Allen's latest dissertation chapter--on gray whales!--has just been published. Check it out here:

Abstract. Local extirpations and extreme bottlenecks can deplete genetic variation and obscure population dynamics, especially in highly mobile species. Th

08/20/2026

Our latest paper is on the conservation genomics of the California towhee, which has been petitioned for delisting with regard to the endangered species act. Read more here!

Demographic, geographic, and environmental factors such as effective population size, isolation, and habitat availability interact to shape contemporary levels of population genomic diversity. Such f...

07/21/2026

The penultimate chapter from Dr. Jong Yoon Jeon's dissertation has just been published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution!

Whole-genome resequencing data, associated metrics, and their trends over time can be used to inform extinction threat rankings rendered by conservation agencies around the world. Surveys of individual genome sequences can critically address risks to population sustainability by means of key metrics...

07/21/2026

The latest from former PhD student Yanzhu Ji! :)

Powered flight has fundamentally shaped diverse aspects of birds. This study reveals a robust connection between flight, metabolism, and evolutionary rates, suggesting that this influence extends to the tempo of genome evolution.

06/22/2026

A postdoc on several different projects in population genomics and/or epigenetics is now available in my lab. See https://www.purdue.edu/fnr/sites/dewoody/lab-members/potential-students/ and https://careers.purdue.edu/job/Post-Doc-Research-Assistant/42765-en_US/?st=09562B93BB96A38F9C7BEFD0EA05FB1D79640FAB for more info. Interested applicants should email a CV formatted as a PDF.

06/01/2026

Natalie Allen is in the spotlight yet again for her great work!

Follow Purdue Agriculture : https://www.facebook.com/PurdueAgInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/purdue_agX: https://twitter.com/PurdueAgWe...

04/30/2026

I'm happy to say that Natalie Allen's first dissertation chapter--on Western Chicken Turtles--has just been published in Conservation Genetics. Congrats to Natalie and all her coauthors!

Whole genome resequencing can be a powerful tool for uncovering biological insights and quantifying population genomic metrics relevant to conservation. These insights have the potential to be most profound in secretive or elusive species that are understudied but whose populations may be waning. Th...

04/14/2026

Congrats to Dr. Jong Yoon Jeon on a great dissertation and even better defense! One of his chapters has already been designated a Top Cited Article; you can read it here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eva.70000

Thanks to Drs. Nina Therkildsen, Barny Dunning & Jessica Gurevitch for their outstanding advisory committee service!