Our research can be divided into three major themes
Evolution in small populations
Most classical population genetics theories are based on assumptions of large panmictic populations. However, with increased access to large scale sequencing datasets, it is observed that most populations are small already or been through a historic bottleneck. Thus, most populations of wild species violate most predictions. Classical theories predict small populations are prone to extinctions, and yet, despite being small at some point in history we observe the immense diversity in nature. How did these populations survive the bottlenecks when several populations might have gone extinct? Studying these populations might hold the key to saving endangered species.
Methods for wildlife genetics
Our lab majorly works on elusive endangered species. Individuals of such species are extremely difficult to sample directly. Thus non-invasive samples like faeces, shed hair, feathers and other such indirect biological material or environmental samples like water, parasites, soil are often sampled. Such samples have several problems like degraded low concentration DNA, high contamination and low depth data. We develop resources like reference genomes, and SNP panels and optimize methods for seqeuncing whole genomes from non-invasive and environmental samples.
Capacity building for translation of research
We make active attempts to ensure that the advances in wildlife genomics studies reach the intended audience. Most of the studies in this field are conducted in the global north even if the species is tropical. Most often such studies do not involve researchers from the native range of the species or treat researchers from the native ranges as "sample couriers" thus leading to parachute science with low conservation outputs. We conduct capacity building workshops so that researchers from lower- and middle-income countries can work on their native species without being excluded by the global scientific community