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Affiliated Faculty

Omar Cornejo Ordaz
  • Pronouns he, him, his, his, himself
  • Title
    • Associate Professor
  • Division Physical & Biological Sciences Division
  • Department
    • Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department
  • Affiliations Genomics Institute
  • Phone
    8314592820
  • Email
  • Website
  • Office Location
    • CSC Coastal Biology Building, 272
  • Mail Stop CBB/EE Biology
  • Mailing Address
    • 130 McAllister Way
    • Santa Cruz CA 95060
  • Faculty Areas of Expertise Evolution, Genetics, Genomics, Population Biology, Microbiology
  • Courses BIOE-172/272, BIOE-183, BIOE-279

Summary of Expertise

Understanding how evolutionary processes that have shaped host and microbe genomes can increase our ability to predict organismal health and disease. In our lab we study how natural selection drives the adaptation of microbes to their hosts and how hosts develop disease resistance. We focus on the evolutionary context (historical demographics and especial geological and anthropological events) under which selection drives the gain or loss of genetic variants using study systems in humans, microbiomes, malarial parasites, and plants.

Biography, Education and Training

BS, Biology, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela (2000)
MS, Ecology and Population Biology, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Caracas, Venezuela  (2004)
PhD, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Emory University (2009) 
Postdoc, Genetics, Cornell University (2009-2010)

Postdoc, Genetics, Stanford University (2010-2013)

Teaching Interests

Population Genetics, Evolutionary Medicine, Evolutionary genetics