Artyom Kopp

Artyom Kopp

Expert

Artyom Kopp is Professor of Department of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California – Davis. He is an evolutionary geneticist at the Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California – Davis, where he pursues a lifelong goal to understand the mechanisms of evolutionary change.  As an undergraduate student at St. Petersburg State University, he focused on zoology, genetics, and population biology before moving to Washington University for Ph.D. research in developmental biology.  His postdoctoral work was as a Life Sciences Research Foundation fellow at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he began applying developmental-genetic approaches to reconstruct the evolution of new phenotypes.  In 2002, he moved to UC – Davis to continue this research.His work spans the boundary between animal development and evolution.  His goal is to identify the molecular changes responsible for the evolution of morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits, to understand how changes in DNA sequences affect development and cell differentiation to produce novel phenotypes; and to elucidate the roles of natural selection and demographic forces in shaping the evolution of gene networks.  To address these questions, he integrates developmental biology and genomics with phylogenetic analysis and quantitative genetics, using Drosophila fruit flies as models.