Dapper Lab

Dr. Amy Dapper, PI

311 Harned Hall

662.325.7575  

dapper(at)biology.msstate.edu

I received my PhD in Biological Sciences from Virginia Tech in Fall 2024, where I used mathematical models to study the eco-evolutionary processes of evolutionary rescue and niche construction. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Dapper lab, I am continuing my work on evolutionary rescue, now examining how rescue is affected by plasticity in the rate of recombination.

I received my BSc in Biomedical Engineering at Mississippi State University in 2015, after which I started working at Washington University studying actin cytoskeleton structures, cell motility, and their impact on pneumococcal disease outcomes. After a term of service through AmeriCorps VISTA, I began a PhD program in Computational Biology at Mississippi State University, joining the Dapper lab in Summer 2021. My research interests include comparative phylogenetics of meiotic recombination pathway evolution, population genetics of the American alligator, and the evolution of temperature-dependent sex determination mechanisms. In my spare time I enjoy birding, crafting, and hiking the great outdoors.

I completed my BS in Biological Sciences at Delta State University in Fall 2019. My undergraduate research was based on silencing mechanisms of transposons in the maize genome, where I learned various techniques like gene mapping and qRT-PCR. I started my PhD in Biological Sciences at Mississippi State University in Dr. Amy Dapper’s lab in Fall 2020. My current research project is on the evolution of recombination rate, focusing on recombination rates of Caenorhabditis elegans. 

I received my bachelor’s in Biological Engineering at Mississippi State University (MSU) in 2020. I completed a master's degree in 2022 at MSU. My thesis focused on using comparative evolution and genomics approaches to study the Heliconius genus butterflies, a long-lived species with unique life history changes, including the ability to pollen-feed. In 2023, I began my Ph.D. in Computational Biology in the Dapper lab. My research focuses on using forward-in-time simulations and machine learning to study the evolution of meiotic recombination. Outside of the lab, I enjoy walking my dog, reading sci-fi novels, and playing pickleball!