Our work primarily involves investigating the causes and consequences of ecological and evolutionary dynamics of populations. We integrate quantitative and experimental approaches to address relevant questions.

Broadly we are working on two major themes currently:

1. Understanding the impacts of environmental mismatches on organismal performance and disease susceptibility

Here we are using large out-bred populations of common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster as model systems to decipher the nuances of organismal performance at diverse environmental conditions, which are different from their native raring conditions. As genetic and phenotypic characterization of Drosophila is rather well-studied, the existing knowledge is a big advantage for this system, which can compliment our experiments appropriately to obtain a holistic understanding spanning multiple levels of biological organisations. Currently we are studying the effects dietary mismatches on organismal performance, and their consequences on susceptibility to metabolic disorders.

2. Characterizing fluctuations in abundance and diversity patterns in populations with finite size

Population abundance and diversity vary across time and space. Understanding how different organismic, demographic and environmental factors contribute to this intriguing dynamic pattern is rather challenging. However, this knowledge is crucial in, inter alia, appropriate management of conservation effort for extinction-prone populations, optimizing yield of commercially valuable species and controlling pest populations. We address such issues using computational simulation and experimental framework, where both complement each other to generate robust and generalizable insights, and device strategies implementable on real biological populations.