Our research is devoted to the development of computational methods for analyzing data generated by high throughput biological experiments. This work involves constructing mathematical models for biological processes, designing efficient inferernce algorithms under these models, implementing these algorithms into public software tools, and most importantly . . . analyzing real data. We are particularly interested in capitalizing on recent progress in DNA sequencing technologies to advance the study of evolution and population genetics.
We are devoted to education through various courses and student projects given at the Efi Arazi School of Computer Science. The courses foucs on formal modeling of complex problems and data sets and development of efficient inference algorithms for these models.
Hejase HA, Salman-Minkov A, Campagna L, Hubisz MJ, Lovette IJ, Gronau I*+, Siepel A* (2020) Genomic islands of differentiation in a rapid avian radiation are driven by recent selective sweeps. Accepted to PNAS, in print. BioRxiv preprint
Chavez DE, Gronau I, Hains T, Kliver S, Koepfli KP, Wayne RK. (2019) Comparative genomics provides new insights into the remarkable adaptations of the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus). Scientic Reports, 9:8329 PubMed
Kuhlwilm M*, Gronau I*, Hubisz MJ, de Filippo C, Prado-Martinez J, et al. (2016) Ancient gene flow from modern humans into Siberian Neanderthals . Nature 530, 429-433 PubMed ReadCube public view Dedicated page
Campagna L, Gronau I, Silveira LF, Siepel A, Lovette IJ. (2015) Distinguishing noise from signal in patterns of genomic divergence in a highly polymorphic avian radiation. Molecular Ecology 24:4238-4251 PubMed
Freedman A, Gronau I, Schweizer RM, Han E, Ortega-Del Vecchyo D, et al. (2014) Genome Sequencing Highlights the Dynamic Early History of Dogs. PLoS Genetics 10(8), e1004631 PubMed
Gronau I, Arbiza L, Mohammed J, Siepel A. (2013) Inference of Natural Selection from Interspersed Genomic Elements Based on Polymorphism and Divergence. Molecular Biology and Evolution 30(5):1159-1171 PubMed
Gronau I, Hubisz MJ, Gulko B, Danko CG, Siepel A. (2011) Bayesian inference of ancient human demography from individual genome sequences. Nature Genetics 43:1031-1034 PubMed
Gronau I, Moran S, Yavneh I. (2009) Towards Optimal Distance Functions for Stochastic Substitutions Models. Journal of Theoretical Biology 260:294-307 PubMed
A key part of our mission is to provide open source software for the methods we develop. We strive to expand the user base of our methods by continuously improving the software based on feedback from users.