Principal Investigator
Susanne P. Pfeifer. Susanne earned her D.Phil. in Statistics at the University of Oxford (UK) in 2013 advised by Gil McVean, working on the statistical challenges involved in the estimation of variation in mutation and recombination rates from high throughput sequencing data, with direct applications to primate population genetics in a collaboration with Molly Przeworski’s Lab at the University of Chicago and Peter Donnelly’s Lab at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford. She went on to do her postdoc work as a Vienna International Postdoctoral Program (VIPS) fellow at the Center for Integrative Bioinformatics Vienna (Austria). As a research associate at EPFL (Switzerland), she focused on the evolution of cryptic coloration in wild populations of mice (in collaboration with the Hoekstra Lab, Harvard) and lizards (in collaboration with the Rosenblum Lab, Berkeley). Susanne founded the Pfeifer Lab as an Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences at ASU in 2017. In 2023, she was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. email googlescholar pubmed
Research Scientist
Postdoctoral Researcher
Takahiro Maruki. Takahiro earned his Ph.D. in Biology at Arizona State University, studying the effects of selection and genetic drift in structured populations (advised by Yuseob Kim and Jay Taylor), followed by postdoctoral research at Indiana University developing statistical methods for the population genomic analysis of high-throughput sequencing data (advised by Mike Lynch). Most recently, Takahiro served as a Research Associate at McGill University (advised by Melania Cristescu), working in both population- and functional-genomic analyses. Upon joining the Pfeifer Lab in Spring 2025 (jointly-appointed in the Jensen Lab), Takahiro will focus on primate population genomic analyses. pubmed
Erangi Heenkenda. Erangi earned her M.Sc. at the University of Florida (on a Fulbright Award) and her PhD at Purdue, studying the population / conservation genomics of aquatic species (advised by J. Andrew DeWoody), followed by postdoctoral research at the USDA’s National Veterinary Science Laboratory as an ORISE fellow (advised by Rachel Palinski). Upon joining the Pfeifer Lab in Summer 2025 (jointly-appointed in the Jensen Lab), Erangi will focus on primate population genomic analyses. pubmed
Postdoctoral Researcher
Postdoctoral Researcher
Audald Lloret-Villas. Audald earned his Ph.D. in Animal Genomics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland) advised by Hubert Pausch, working on the identification of genetic loci involved in expression and methylation variation in livestock animals. In the Pfeifer Lab, Audald is focused on developing cutting-edge genomics approaches to gain a better understanding of the variation characterizing biomedically-relevant primates. pubmed
Niraj Rayamajhi. Niraj earned his Ph.D. in Biology with a focus on Bioinformatics and Genomics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign advised by Julian Catchen, working on the genomics of Antarctic notothenioid fishes as part of the NSF Polar Program. In the Pfeifer Lab, Niraj is investigating the causes and consequences of structural variation in biomedically-relevant primates using cutting-edge sequencing data. pubmed
Postdoctoral Researcher
Ph.D. Student
Gabriella J. Spatola. Gabby earned her Ph.D. as an Intramural Research Fellow at the University of South Carolina and the NIH National Human Genome Research Institute advised by Elaine Ostrander, working on the genetic architecture of free-breeding dog populations in Chernobyl and the Galápagos islands. Upon joining the Pfeifer Lab in Summer 2025 (jointly-appointed in the Jensen Lab), Gabby will focus on primate population genomic analyses. pubmed
Mark R. Milhaven. Mark earned his B.Sc. in Quantitative Biology and Bioinformatics at Stony Brook University funded by a New York State STEM scholarship. During his undergraduate in the Veeramah Lab, Mark focused on questions centered on lineage-specific transposable elements in gibbons. In the Pfeifer Lab, Mark’s research focuses on the detection of de novo mutations from sequencing data. pubmed
Ph.D. Student
Lab Dogs
Cyril J.F. Versoza. Cyril earned his B.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of the Philippines (Philippines), where he was a College and University Scholar in the Lazaro Lab, working on the identification of novel molecular drug targets of antibiotics. In the Pfeifer Lab, Cyril is investigating the genetic determinants that affect broad- and fine-scale mutation and recombination rates in primates and other vertebrates. pubmed
Aldo & Finn