Slate Group - University of Sheffield

We are mainly interested in studying microevolutionary processess in wild populations, which we do by combining data from long term field and lab ecological studies with cutting-edge genomics technologies and statistical genetic approaches.

We are based in the Molecular Ecology lab (along with Terry Burke and Roger Butlin’s groups) in the Department of Animal & Plant Sciences.

Funding

Recent News:

  • August 2012. Congratulations to Emily Brown on defending her PhD thesis on ‘Detection and Selection of Parasite Resistance Genes in a Free-living Mammal Population’
     
  • July 2012. NERC small grant awarded to build The Great Tit HapMap
     
  • June 2012. Jon awarded the Scientific Medal by the Zoological Society of London.
     
  • June 2012. Jon, Anna, Isabelle, Kang-Wook, Jocelyn, Matt and Jenny attend the International Congress of Quantitative Genetics meeting in Edinburgh, and then the inaugural Wild Animal Gemomics workshop at The Burn in the Highlands. Photo.
     
  • May 2012. Congratulations to Isabelle who has been appointed to a permanent academic position at the University of Lille
     
  • January 2012. Jon promoted to a personal chair in Evolutionary Genetics
     
  • January 2012. Welcome to Kang-Wook Kim (postdoc) and Lola Brookes (Grad RA), who start a BBSRC funded project on the genetic basis of variation in sperm morphology and motility in zebra finches
     
  • December 2011. Congratulations to Jocelyn Poissant, who has won a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellow grant.
     
  • November 2011. Jocelyn Poissant, NSERC fellow working on great tit genomics, joins group.
     
  • October 2011. Jenny Armstrong, new PhD student working on great tit evolutionary genetics, joins group
     
  • July 2011. New BBSRC grant awarded to map and identify the genes responsible for variation in sperm morphology and motility in zebra finches
     
  • February 2011. Jon & Anna both attend excellent Gordon Research Conference on Quantitative Genetics and Genomics
     
  • February 2011. Sanad Alfadala, new PhD student working on population genetics of Egyptian spiny mouse, arrives
     
  • January 2011. Jon gives plenary talk at Population Genetics meeting (PopGroup).
     
  • January 2011. Susan Johnston starts postdoc with Craig Primmer (Turku). Jess Stapley starts Marie Curie fellowship in Panama. Both gone but not forgotten!
     
  • November 2010. Welcome to Rachel Tucker, new technician running Illumina BeadXpress and working on various projects.
     
  • October 2010. Susan Johnston defends PhD thesis. Congrats to Susie!
     
  • October 2010. Isabelle de Cauwer, new postdoc on ERC great tit genomics project arrives.
     
  • June 2010. Jon co-author on Science paper on natural selection in crickets, led by Tom Tregenza’s group.
     
  • April 2010. Slate Group are co-authors on zebra finch genome paper in Nature, and various companion articles
     
  • December 2009. Jess Stapley wins a Marie Curie fellowship to go the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama
     
  • December 2009. Another fledgling. Jim Mossman starts postdoc in David Rand’s lab at Brown University.
     
  • December 2009. MAERO project ends. Philine starts a new postdoc in Germany, Juan starts a new postdoc in Sheffield and Robert due to return to Uppsala on a Swedish fellowship
  • August 2009. Deborah Johnson starts faculty job at Castleton Stae College, Vermont
     
  • July 2009. Second Slate Group Retreat at Longshaw Estate in Peak District. Juan’s slideshow.
     
  • January 2009. Anna Santure, new postdoc on ERC-funded great tit project arrives
     
  • November 2008. Second Slate Group PhD. Jim Mossman passes PhD viva with no thesis corrections required. Congratulations to Jim.
     
  • October 2008. New PhD student Emily Brown and MBiolSci student Claire Wordley join group. Julia Reger, co-supervised PhD student with Andrew Beckerman also starts.
     
  • July 2008. Zebra finch genome assembled. Data from Stapley et al linkage map used in assembly. See here.
     
  • July 9th-11th. Inaugaral Slate Group Retreat to Norfolk takes place. Great fun and even quite productive. Pictures
     
  • June-July 2008. Deborah Johnson and Robert Ekblom and their families arrive from USA and Sweden respectively.
     
  • May 2008. Jess Stapley and co-authors publish zebra finch genome map in Genetics, featured in Science, Editor’s Choice.
     
  • March 2008. Susan Johnston wins prize for best student poster at Ecological Genetics meeting in Sheffield
     
  • January 2008. Jake Gratten and co-authors publish Science paper on microevolution of coat colour in Soay sheep.