Craig T. Miller, Ph.D.

Research

Our lab investigates the genetic basis of development and evolution of the vertebrate head skeleton. To address this fundamental and largely unanswered question, we use an integrative approach of developmental biology, quantitative genetics, and evolutionary biology in the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), a new model fish system that has rampant natural variation and favorable features for genetic approaches. By determining the molecular genetic basis of a broad set of head skeletal adaptations, we seek a general understanding of how genetic circuitry controls craniofacial patterning, and how changes to this circuitry result in phenotypic differences.