At the broadest level my research interests focus on the genetics of natural and sexual selection. MHC genes play a central role in immune recognition, but they have also been shown to influence individual odors and reproductive traits such as mating preferences and spontaneous abortion.
MHC genes are also the most polymorphic loci known for vertebrates.
This allelic sequence diversification results because MHC allelic lineages are ancient, more ancient than recent speciation events. So, for example, any given human MHC allele is more related to some alleles from chimpanzees and gorillas than it is to most other human alleles. Antigen binding site codons show a high rate of substitutions that change the amino acid sequence, indicating that new antigenic profiles are being favored. It can be demonstrated that to account for each of the above features some form of natural selection acting on the antigen binding site is required. Answering this question is a central focus of my laboratory and leads to at least four major levels of inquiry involving host-parasite interactions, inbreeding, sexual selection and kin recognition systems.