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428 Clinical Research Building | 415 Curie Blvd. | University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia PA 19104-6145
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Charla Lambert, Ph.D.
NIH IRACDA Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Genetics |
Research Interests
I study patterns of genetic variation in African populations, at both the genome-wide and single-gene levels. The continent of Africa is the source of all anatomically modern humans that dispersed across the planet over the past 100,000 years. As such, it contains the highest levels of human genetic variation among the earth’s continents. A thorough understanding of variation in African populations is essential for designing effective gene-mapping studies involving both Africans and African-Americans. Despite this, little is currently known about baseline patterns of African genetic variation. In fact, African populations are consistently understudied in the field of human genetics, as compared to non-African populations. My postdoctoral research involves characterizing genome-wide patterns of variation in African populations in order to help rectify this bias.
In addition, I study single genes that have played important roles in the genetics of African populations. For example, the FY gene encodes the Duffy blood group system in humans. Individuals homozygous for a particular single-base mutation do not express FY protein in their red blood cells and are resistant to malaria caused by the parasite Plasmodium vivax. The so-called Duffy-O mutation has a frequency of nearly 100% in populations from sub-Saharan Africa but is nonexistent elsewhere. Because of this unusual geographic distribution, it has long been hypothesized that Duffy-O was the target of positive natural selection caused by the presence of either P. vivax or some similarly harmful agent in prehistoric Africa. Despite this, many details about the mutation’s evolutionary history remain unknown. My goal is to infer possible evolutionary histories for the Duffy-O mutation by analyzing patterns of DNA variation at the FY locus and performing computer simulations based on the data.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Sciences (2008) University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
Research advisors: Maynard V. Olson and Joshua M. Akey
Courses include: Statistical genetics, computational molecular biology, population genetics, mathematical biology, stochastic processes, and science writing.
Thesis title: The population genetics of Duffy and Duffy-like loci in the human genome
Master of Science in Applied Mathematics (1998) University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
Courses include: Complex analysis, ordinary and partial differential equations, numerical analysis, probability and statistics, optimization, linear analysis, and algorithms.
Thesis title: A stochastic model for interphase chromosomes
Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with a Minor in Literature (1996)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
Courses include: Structure and interpretation of computer programs, software engineering, theory of computation, combinatorics, algorithmic algebra and number theory, linguistics, and holographic imaging.
Academic honors and awards
2008 – 2011
National Institutes of Health Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (NIH IRACDA postdoctoral fellowship)
June 2008
Banner carrier (gonfalonier) for the Graduate School in the 133rd UW Commencement ceremonies
May 2007
Prize for best presentation at the one-day UW Computational Molecular Biology Student Symposium
2003–2006
Research assistant on the UW Genome Training Grant
2002–2003
UW GenOM Project (Genomics Outreach for Minorities) Graduate Fellowship
Research presentations
2008
November:
The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) annual meeting, Philadelphia, PA
Poster title: Highly punctuate patterns of population structure on the X chromosomeOctober:
University of Pennsylvania Biomedical Postdoc Research Symposium, Philadelphia, PA
Poster title: Highly punctuate patterns of population structure on the human X chromosome;Annual conference of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), Salt Lake City, Utah
Poster title: Inferring the evolutionary history of the human Duffy-O mutation2007
October:
ASHG annual meeting, San Diego, California
Poster title: Inferring the evolutionary history of the Duffy-O mutation
May:
UW Computational Molecular Biology Student Symposium, Seattle, Washington2006
October:
SACNAS annual conference, Tampa, Florida
Presentation title: Inferring the evolutionary history of the human Duffy-O mutation
Past research experience
Graduate Research Assistant (1998)
UW Applied Mathematics Department (Seattle, WA)
Studied stochastic models in order to describe the three-dimensional structure of interphase chromosomes.
Advisor: Professor Hong Qian, Departments of Applied Mathematics and Bioengineering.
Thesis title: A stochastic model for interphase chromosomes.
Mathematics Research Assistant in Polymer Physics Group (1995–1996)
MIT Materials Science and Engineering Department (Cambridge, MA)
Studied the prevalence of minimal surfaces in the molecular structure of block copolymers.
Advisor: Professor Edwin L. Thomas, Materials Science and Engineering Department
Research paper: Triply periodic level surfaces as models for cubic tricontinuous block copolymer morphologies.
Undergraduate Researcher in Speech Research Group (1993–1994)
MIT Media Laboratory (Cambridge, MA)
Worked on a software engineering project involving the random accessibility of raw audio data.
Advisor: Chris Schmandt, Principal Investigator in the Media Laboratory.
Teaching experience
Volunteer Tutor (September 2006–present)
Youth Tutoring Program (Seattle, WA)
Tutor for an after-school educational enrichment program aimed at elementary-, middle-, and high-school students who live in low-income public housing communities.
Research Mentor (May–November 2007)
UW Department of Genome Sciences (Seattle, WA)
Mentor for an undergraduate mathematics student, Crista Ann Moreno, on a project studying worldwide population frequencies of the Duffy-O mutation.
Graduate Teaching Assistant (2005–2007)
UW Department of Genome Sciences (Seattle, WA)
Teaching assistant for courses in Genome Informatics (Spring 2005), Introductory Genetics (Summer 2005), Advanced Human Molecular Genetics (Winter 2006), and Theoretical Population Genetics (Spring 2007).
Instructor (1997–2004)
Alliance for Learning and Vision for Underrepresented Americans (ALVA)
University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
Summers 2004 & 1998: Lead instructor for a pre-freshman course in Precalculus and Problem Solving.
June–December 1997: Teaching assistant for a Precalculus and Problem Solving course.
Instructor (Winter 2000)
Shoreline Community College (Shoreline, WA)
Instructed an introductory-level evening course in college algebra while working full-time at Insightful Corporation.
Lecturer (Winter 1999)
UW Applied Mathematics Department (Seattle, WA)
Employed as a full-time faculty lecturer.
Instructed an upper-level undergraduate course in Applied Linear Algebra and Numerical Analysis.
Teaching assistant for an upper-level undergraduate course in Applied Discrete Mathematics and a first-year graduate course in Fundamentals of Optimization.
Predoctoral Lecturer (Summer 1997)
UW Applied Mathematics Department (Seattle, WA)
Instructed an upper-level undergraduate course in Differential Equations and Quantitative Analysis.
Industry experience
Database Programmer (Summer 2002)
The Bainbridge Foundation, Inc. (Bainbridge Island, WA)
Recreated an existing FoxPro database in Microsoft Access 2000 for a nonprofit foundation.
Technical Writer (2000–2002)
Insightful Corporation, formerly known as MathSoft, Inc. (Seattle, WA)
Part of a 3-4 person team responsible for written manuals, documents, and on-line help files for the S-PLUS statistical software package and the Insightful Miner data mining package.
Technical Support Engineer (1999–2000)
Insightful Corporation, formerly known as MathSoft, Inc. (Seattle, WA)
Part of a 3-4 person team responsible for technical support of the S-PLUS line of software products. Answered questions via telephone and email regarding various topics, including probability, statistics, numerical methods, S-PLUS programming, installation, and networking.
Academic service
- 2006-2008 Started a UW student chapter of the Society for Advancement of Native Americans and Chicanos in Science (SACNAS) and acted as its interim President
- 2007 Panelist for the UW Graduate School’s “Getting Connected” reception for new first-year graduate students
- 2003-2007 Panelist for the UW GenOM Project seminar geared toward undergraduates applying to graduate school
- 2003 Panelist for the UW Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) conference
- 2002 & 2004 Workshop leader for the Expanding Your Horizons conference at Shoreline Community College
- 1998 Panelist for the UW new teaching assistants orientation
- 1998 Member of freshmen orientation staff for the Minority Science and Engineering Program
- 1998 Volunteer for UW Math Day
- 1997–1998 Member of a committee to evaluate and support Northshore school district’s mathematics curriculum
Publications
Working titles for papers in press as a result of doctoral work in the UW Genome Sciences Department:
- Theoretical and empirical investigations into the evolutionary history of the Duffy blood group locus
- Highly punctuate patterns of population structure on the X chromosome
- On the use of star-like genealogies in estimating ages of selective sweeps
A Stochastic Model for Interphase Chromosomes (1998). Master’s thesis, University of Washington Applied Mathematics Department. Seattle, Washington.
Triply periodic level surfaces as models for cubic tricontinuous block copolymer morphologies (1996). Philosophic Transactions of the Royal Society of London 354:2009-2023.
