Research

I am interested in leveraging African genetic and phenotypic diversity to understand the role that local adaptation and demography have in shaping human phenotypes. Modern humans arose in Africa, and the continent maintains deep human lineages that have adapted to a diverse set of environments and lifestyles. One focus of my research is the discovery of genetic effects on quantitative traits in multi-population cohorts, by applying statistical genetics tools on whole genome sequence data paired with anthropometric, cardiovascular, and molecular biomarker subject measurements. I also examine the population structure, demography history, and genetic adaptations of African populations, using various computational population genetics tools. My technical focus is on methods and code development, to handle the complex multi-population cohorts that the Tishkoff lab studies.

Education

2011

Ph.D. University of California - Santa Barbara (Physics)

1999

B.A. Reed College (Math-physics)

Academic Positions

2013 - present

Postdoctoral Fellow (Kirchstein National Service Research Award), Tishkoff Lab, Department of Genetics and Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology, University of Pennsylvania 

2011-2013

Postdoctoral Fellow, Kulathinal Lab, Department of Biology, Temple University

2010-2011

Postdoctoral Fellow, Hannenhalli Lab, Penn Center for BioInformatics, University of Pennsylvania

Publications

  • Marcus R. Kronforst, Matthew E.B. Hansen, Nicholas G. Crawford, Jason R. Gallant, Wei Zhang, Rob J. Kulathinal, Durrell D. Kapan, and Sean P. Mullen (2013) Hybridization reveals the evolving genomic architecture of speciation. Cell Reports 5(3):666-677.
  • Hansen, M.E.B, and Kulathinal, J. (2012) Sex-biased networks and nodes of sexually antagonistic conflict in Drosophila. International Journal of Evolutionary Biology. Special Issue: The Evolution of Sex-Related Traits and Genes. Article ID 545392
  • Everett, L., Hansen, M., and Hannenhalli, S. (2010) Regulating the regulators: Modulators of transcription factor activity. Computational Biology of Transcription Factor Binding, ed. Steve Ladunga, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 674, Springer, ch. 19.
  • Hansen, M., Everett, L., Singh, L., and Hannenhalli, S. (2010) Mimosa: Mixture model of co-expression to detect modulators of regulatory interactions. Algorithms for Molecular Biology 5:4.
  • Hansen, M., and Oh, S.P. (2007) Lyman alpha radiative transfer. American Astronomical Society 38:230.
  • Hansen, M., and Oh, S.P. (2006) Lyman alpha radiative transfer in a multiphase medium. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 367:979.

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