Tauana Cunha
Assistant Professor
Ph.D. 2019, Harvard University
Evolution of invertebrates; Genomics; Phylogenomics Phone: 773.508.7097
E-mail: tcunha@luc.edu
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RESEARCH INTERESTS
Research in my lab is focused on the evolution of invertebrate animals. We investigate how organisms are related to each other in deep time (i.e. build phylogenies), what their genomes can teach us about animal evolution, and how biodiversity is distributed in time and space — especially in the marine realm. While we generally focus on gastropods (snails and slugs), we are fascinated by & explore various branches of the invertebrate tree of life.
Our work spans collecting specimens around the world, contributing to & making use of museum collections, generating novel molecular data for non-model organisms, and using computational tools to analyze genomic datasets.
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS
Cunha TJ, de Medeiros BAS, Lord A, Sørensen MV, Giribet G. 2023. Rampant loss of universal metazoan genes revealed by a chromosome-level genome assembly of the parasitic Nematomorpha. Current Biology 33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.07.003
Lord A, Cunha TJ, de Medeiros BAS, Sato S, Khost DE, Sackton TB, Giribet G. 2023. Expanding on Our Knowledge of Ecdysozoan Genomes: A Contiguous Assembly of the Meiofaunal Priapulan Tubiluchus corallicola. Genome Biology and Evolution 15: evad103. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evad103
Cunha TJ, Fernández-Simón J, Petrula M, Giribet G, Moles J. 2023. Photographic Checklist, DNA Barcoding, and New Species of Sea Slugs and Snails from the Faafu Atoll, Maldives (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia and Vetigastropoda). Diversity 15: 219. https://doi.org/10.3390/d15020219
Cunha TJ, Reimer JD, Giribet G. 2022. Investigating sources of conflict in deep phylogenomics of vetigastropod snails. Systematic Biology: syab071. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/sy
Cunha TJ, Giribet G. 2019. A congruent topology for deep gastropod relationships. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 20182776. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.2776
Cunha TJ, Lemer S, Bouchet P, Kano Y, Giribet G. 2019. Putting keyhole limpets on the map: phylogeny and biogeography of the globally distributed marine family Fissurellidae (Vetigastropoda, Mollusca). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 135: 249–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2019.02.008
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Assistant Professor
Ph.D. 2019, Harvard University
Evolution of invertebrates; Genomics; Phylogenomics Phone: 773.508.7097
E-mail: tcunha@luc.edu
|
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Research in my lab is focused on the evolution of invertebrate animals. We investigate how organisms are related to each other in deep time (i.e. build phylogenies), what their genomes can teach us about animal evolution, and how biodiversity is distributed in time and space — especially in the marine realm. While we generally focus on gastropods (snails and slugs), we are fascinated by & explore various branches of the invertebrate tree of life.
Our work spans collecting specimens around the world, contributing to & making use of museum collections, generating novel molecular data for non-model organisms, and using computational tools to analyze genomic datasets.
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS
Cunha TJ, de Medeiros BAS, Lord A, Sørensen MV, Giribet G. 2023. Rampant loss of universal metazoan genes revealed by a chromosome-level genome assembly of the parasitic Nematomorpha. Current Biology 33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.07.003
Lord A, Cunha TJ, de Medeiros BAS, Sato S, Khost DE, Sackton TB, Giribet G. 2023. Expanding on Our Knowledge of Ecdysozoan Genomes: A Contiguous Assembly of the Meiofaunal Priapulan Tubiluchus corallicola. Genome Biology and Evolution 15: evad103. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evad103
Cunha TJ, Fernández-Simón J, Petrula M, Giribet G, Moles J. 2023. Photographic Checklist, DNA Barcoding, and New Species of Sea Slugs and Snails from the Faafu Atoll, Maldives (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia and Vetigastropoda). Diversity 15: 219. https://doi.org/10.3390/d15020219
Cunha TJ, Reimer JD, Giribet G. 2022. Investigating sources of conflict in deep phylogenomics of vetigastropod snails. Systematic Biology: syab071. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/sy
Cunha TJ, Giribet G. 2019. A congruent topology for deep gastropod relationships. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 20182776. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.2776
Cunha TJ, Lemer S, Bouchet P, Kano Y, Giribet G. 2019. Putting keyhole limpets on the map: phylogeny and biogeography of the globally distributed marine family Fissurellidae (Vetigastropoda, Mollusca). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 135: 249–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2019.02.008