In the Grogan lab, we investigate the impact of genetic and epigenetic variation on differences in fitness across environmental conditions. With the effects of human-induced climate change becoming more pronounced, research at the intersection of the environmental change, evolutionary genomics, and individual fitness is critical to our ability to conserve biodiversity and understand humanity’s ability to adapt to climate change. By using human and non-human primate models, our work has direct applications to both human health research and conservation work. To ask these questions, we integrate anthropological genomics, evolutionary biology, and biomedicine, and apply our findings widely, from the conservation of endangered species to improving human health. In achieving these research goals, we train and support developing and independent scientists, with an emphasis on advancing impactful and ethical research practices through the innovation that results from a diverse and welcoming team.

Furthermore, because we investigate questions relating to human variation and evolution as well as endangered species conservation and we work with and near marginalized peoples in areas of the world with long histories of colonial oppression, our work, including the act of conducting research as well as the publication of our findings, can have real world implications that extend beyond the lab. Thus, we incorporate the consideration of ethical implications of our work and we involve the participant communities in our work throughout the research process, from study design through publication, with the goal of reducing the potential for harm from our research as much as possible. Dr. Grogan is currently developing projects to examine how long-term environmental change has affected human hunter-gatherers in Southwest Uganda and how short-term environmental variation affects wild ring-tailed lemurs in Southwest Madagascar.

The wild ring-tailed lemurs at Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve (BMSR), Madagascar have experienced five ECEs in the past two decades, including severe droughts in 2003, 2009-2010, and 2016 to the present, and extremely high rainfall and flooding related to the occurrence of cyclones in 2005-2006. Leveraging my expertise in studying genetic variation and fitness in this species, I will study the impact of the of these ECEs, in order to reveal the interplay between genetic diversity, physiology, fitness, and environmental variation. From an evolutionary perspective, identifying if gene regulation changes in response to shifting environments and stressors can help us understand the interaction between fitness, genotype, and anthropogenic change with applications towards conserving species, and predicting evolutionary responses in the face of climate change, especially for long-lived species. 

The Batwa, however, were resettled outside of the forest in 1992 onto agricultural land interspersed with Bakiga settlements, such that they now share an environment and subsistence modes. 

Thus, the Batwa hunter-gatherer genome is now under the selective regime of an agriculturalist lifestyle, creating a ‘genome-environment mismatch’.  I plan to characterize how the timing of this transition, either before or after reaching adulthood, has affected patterns of gene regulation and health with an eye to understanding the role of environmental change in human physiology and disease.

Functional epigenomics of growth and development in human hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists with Dr. George PJ Perry

Differences in living strategy, e.g. hunting and gathering versus agriculture, result in differences in most aspects of human existence including living environment, activity level, and nutritional intake. For the Batwa rainforest hunter-gatherers and Bakiga agriculturalists from Uganda, these differences have led to variation in body size, with the Batwa being significantly smaller in stature than the Bakiga. I investigated the regulation of genes (via growth hormone challenges) related to growth and development in order to advance our understanding of evolutionary and ecological influences on human growth patterns as well as the flexibility of the mechanisms regulating these pathways.

See Grogan & Perry 2020

Collaborators: George (PJ) Perry, Christina Bergey, & Luis Barreiro