The Gifford Lab conducts scientific investigations into the evolution of viruses and their impact on host species.
Research themes include:
- Long-term evolution of viruses: Exploring how viruses evolve over extended timescales.
- Origins and emergence of viral pathogens: Investigating the evolutionary history and cross-species transmission events that give rise to new viral pathogens.
- Impact of viruses on host species evolution: Examining how interactions with viruses shapes the evolution of host species.
- Paleovirology: Uncovering the ancient interactions between viruses and hosts through the study of endogenous viral elements (EVEs).
We are dedicated to advancing comparative genomics by creating open resources that promote collaborative research.
Our main focus is the GLUE software framework and various genomics resources developed using this framework.
We have also developed the DIGS tool - a framework for performing systematic in silico genome screening.
