Rob Ness smirking in front of a background that has a classroom whiteboard with black writing on it. He is wearing a dark grey crewneck shirt and has short dark brown hair and a light shadow beard.

Rob Ness

Associate Professor
Biology

The Ness Lab

Ness Lab graphic of a DNA spiral

In the Ness lab, we study how evolution shapes the genome. We are especially interested in how new variation from mutation and recombination alters the course of natural selection to drive evolution. Our work combines natural and experimental populations with bioinformatics and the latest genomic technologies.

To find out more about the work conducted by my lab and to find information about how to apply for available opportunities working in the lab, please visit the Ness Lab Website.

Current Lab Members

Madeleine Oman, PhD Student

Eniolaye Balogun, PhD Student

Yeshoda Harry-Paul, PhD Student

Irtaqa Arif, PhD Student

Jimmy Issa, MSc Student

Education

PhD Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto 2011

Publications

Recent significant contributions to research, for a more complete list, please visit my google scholar page.

1. Harry-Paul Yeshoda Y, Lachapelle Josianne, Ness Rob W. 2024. The evolution of gene expression plasticity during adaptation to salt in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Genome biology and evolution. Oct 8:evae214. doi:10.1093/gbe/evae214/59640200/evae214

2. Ford Scott A, Ness Rob W, Kwon Moonhyuk, Ro Dae-Kyun, Phillips Michael A. 2024. A chromosome level reference genome of Diviner’s sage (Salvia divinorum) provides insight into salvinorin A biosynthesis. BMC plant biology. 24(1):914. doi:10.1186/s12870-024-05633-0

3. Balogun Eniolaye J, Ness Rob W. 2024. The Effects of De Novo Mutation on Gene Expression and the Consequences for Fitness in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Molecular biology and evolution. 41(3). doi:10.1093/molbev/msae035

4. Hasan Ahmed R, Lachapelle Josianne, El-Shawa Sara A, Potjewyd Roman, Ford Scott A, Ness Rob W. 2022. Salt stress alters the spectrum of de novo mutation available to selection during experimental adaptation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Evolution; international journal of organic evolution. 76(10):2450–2463. doi:10.1111/evo.14604

5. Oman Madeleine, Alam Aqsa, Ness Rob W. 2022. How Sequence Context-Dependent Mutability Drives Mutation Rate Variation in the Genome. Genome biology and evolution. 14(3). doi:10.1093/gbe/evac032