People

Christian Huber - Principal Investigator 

I'm an Assistant Professor in the Biology department of The Pennsylvania State University. I'm interested in quantifying positive and negative natural selection in the genome. Currently I'm working on methods for inferring demographic history and genetic adaptation from ancient DNA.

Please find my publications on my Google Scholar page.

Mahsa Alemrajabi - Postdoctoral Scholar 

Mahsa completed her PhD in Physics from Florida Atlantic University, where she developed a deep interest in uncovering meaningful patterns within complex data. Her interdisciplinary experience spans gravitational wave signals, medical imaging, and genomic sequences. Motivated by a long-standing curiosity about human genetics and the evolutionary forces that shape us, she joined the Huber Lab as a postdoc to apply data-driven methods to population genetics, with a particular interest in inferring demographic history.

Troy LaPolice - PhD Candidate

Troy is a PhD Candidate in the Bioinformatics and Genomics Program. He completed his B.S. with Interdisciplinary Honors at the University of New Hampshire in 2021, where he studied biases in transcriptome and genome assembly. At Penn State, he is currently working on agent-based simulations of admixture events in ancient human history. Troy is also applying agent-based models to other interesting systems such as coral restoration and admixture. Beyond his simulation work, Troy is interested in detecting purifying selection within the genome, both in modern, and ancient human populations. In his spare time, he enjoys attending many of the sporting events at Penn State.

Abigail Sequeira - PhD Candidate

Abigail is a PhD Candidate in the Biology program. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology from the University of Dallas in 2019 and later received her MS in May 2022 from Texas A&M University where she studied selfish mitochondrial dynamics in C. elegans. She is broadly interested in human evolutionary genetics and is focusing on how demographic changes influence signals of selection in the human genome. Currently, she is investigating how admixture impacts the detection of the selective sweeps in ancient human populations.

Dina Memar Moshrefi - PhD Student

Dina is a physical anthropologist with a B.A. in Archaeology from the University of Tehran (2022) and a PhD student in the Huber Lab at Penn State. Dina is pursuing a dual-title degree in Biology and Microbiome Sciences, with research exploring how environmental shifts, particularly dietary changes, influenced the oral microbiome and oral diseases in ancient populations of Mesopotamia, the Levant, and the Iranian Plateau.

Dina has seven seasons of experience in archaeological excavations, mostly in ancient cemeteries, and is passionate about cultural heritage preservation. Dina does street photography as a hobby, and in her spare time enjoys dancing, visiting museums, listening to music, and diving deeper into her fantasy lore obsession.

Marilena Papavassiliou - PhD Student

Marilena is a PhD student in the Bioinformatics and Genomics program. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology from the University at Buffalo - SUNY in 2022. She is broadly interested in marine population genetics and dispersal, with a particular focus on the population genetics of reef fish in the South Pacific. She is also interested in utilizing ecological principles to understand spatial population genetic processes.

Vanessa Garcia - PhD Student

Vanessa is a PhD student in the Bioinformatics and Genomics Program. She completed her B.S. At California State University Monterey Bay in 2021. She currently studies marine larval dispersal of reef fish in the South Pacific and is interested in using empirical genetic data to validate computer models, with the ultimate goal of improving the design and management of marine protected areas.  Additionally, she is interested in the implications of high levels of dispersal for local adaptation in marine systems. To this end, she researches the genomic basis of local adaptation, with an emphasis on structural genomic variation, in species with high dispersal potential.

Julien Mutton - Undergraduate Student

Julien is an Undergraduate Computer Science student with interest in applying computational methods to biology, particularly in health and disease contexts. He aims to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and bioinformatics, with a focus on developing models and algorithms that accelerate discovery and support data-driven insights in biological research. Within the Huber Lab, he is working with PhD Candidate Troy LaPolice, to quantify variation in purifying selection across different demographic patterns in ancient human populations.

Kevin Mouck

Kevin is a former undergraduate trainee in the Huber Lab. While at Penn State, Kevin studied Biostatistics and earned an Erickson Discovery Grant for undergraduate research. Kevin graduated with his bachelor's degree from Penn State in the Spring of 2024. 

Olivia Johnson

Olivia is both a former PhD student, and a former Postdoctoral Scholar in the Huber Lab. Olivia completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide under the supervision of Dr. Huber.  Following her PhD, Olivia continued working in the Huber Lab as a Postdoc, now at Penn State, where she focused on population genetics and natural selection. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Huber Lab, Olivia continued exploring fluctuating selection and its effects on genetic variation.

Matthew Williams 

Matthew is a former a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Huber lab at Penn State, where his research is focused on expanding our understanding of the genetic history of ancient Near Eastern populations and the development of methods for inferring the history of admixture and selection. Matthew has moved on from the Huber Lab to his next academic chapter as Affiliate Assistant Professor at Penn State and Associate Professor at Walla Walla University. Matthew is continuing to advance his research on reconstructing ancient demographic histories and exploring how past communities adapted to diverse environments—work that helps us understand the origins of today's biological diversity.

Ishan Behoora

Ishan is a former a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Huber Lab who worked on improving the efficiency and accuracy of models for inferring demographic history by analyzing the underlying algorithms and techniques used in demographic inference. Since leaving the Huber Lab, Ishan began a new position as a Teaching Faculty in the Computer Science Department at Penn State.