Wildlife Genomics LabSmith College

Smith College · Biological Sciences

How life history shapes evolutionary potential

The Wildlife Genomics Lab integrates computational biology, field collections, and cell culture to study the evolution of complex life history traits, such as lifespan and body size, and how they shape species' responses to rapid environmental change. What we learn about a species' unique biology informs applications in conservation, policy, and biotechnology.

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Dr. Tanya Lama, wearing a headlamp and field gloves, holds a small bat during nighttime fieldwork
Bat fieldwork for the Bat1K Longevity Project

Research themes

Adaptive potential under rapid environmental change

Using population and functional genomics, we quantify the standing variation that powers evolutionary potential. Our whole-genome study of 58 Canada lynx across Maine and eastern Canada produced the first quantitative measure of evolutionary potential for this federally protected species, and it informs Endangered Species Act recovery planning.

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Genomic determinants of extreme phenotypes

We use large-scale comparative genomics to find the species that defy allometric expectations: exceptionally long-lived bats, shrews that shrink and regrow their brains each season, and desert-adapted spiny mice. We then validate candidate mechanisms, such as enhanced mitophagy and proteostasis, in primary cell culture.

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News

  • Insights into longevity and virus-driven adaptation from Myotis bat genomes — now in Nature.

  • Our assessment of climate adaptation potential in Canada lynx at the trailing edge of the range is published in Molecular Ecology.

  • Tanya gave an invited seminar at the University of Memphis on PINK1–PRKN mitophagy and lifespan in long-lived bats.

  • Two shrew papers with the Dávalos Lab: the pancreas of Aselli in BMC Biology, and the adaptive basis of brain size plasticity and chromosomal instability in Molecular Biology and Evolution (2026).

  • Invited talks at the Wellcome Sanger Institute (Understanding Life) and Longevity Biotech in Boston.

  • Welcome to Andrew Spencer (M.S.) and Beatrice Tauer (Honors), who are launching the lab’s work on desert adaptation in the golden spiny mouse, Acomys russatus.

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Selected publications

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