I am a Doctoral Candidate at the Tufts University and The Jackson Laboratory joint program in Mammalian Genetics and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. My Ph.D. research in the Dumont Lab focuses on using genetically diverse mice and bioinformatics approaches to produce high-quality estimates of mutation rate variation in populations and relate this molecular phenotype to infertility and reproductive health. I previously completed a M.S. degree in Evolutionary Biology at George Mason University with Dr. Rebecca Forkner using community science and herbarium specimens to investigate the impacts of climate change on the timing of plant and insect reproductive phenology.
I am also involved in bioinformatics and data science education as an instructor with The Carpentries and through developing university data science curricula.
PhD Genetics, Mammalian Genetics, in progress
Tufts University & Jackson Laboratory
MS Biology, Evolutionary Biology, 2020
George Mason University
BS Biology, Environmental and Conservation Biology, 2018
George Mason University
Genetic analyses of mammalian gametogenesis and fertility have the potential to inform about two important and interrelated clinical areas: infertility and contraception. Here, we address the genetics and genomics underlying gamete formation, productivity and function in the context of reproductive success in mammalian systems, primarily mouse and human.
Together, these findings underscore the role of genetics in regulating alternative reproductive tactics in house mice and emphasize the need to adopt animal husbandry practices tailored to strain backgrounds.
Overall, our work suggests that the M. m. bactrianus and M. m. helgolandicus subspecies are not well-justified taxonomic entities, emphasizing the importance of leveraging whole-genome sequence data to inform subspecies designations. Additionally, our investigation provides tailored experimental procedures for generating whole genome sequences from air-dried mouse skins, along with key genomic resources to inform future genomic studies of wild mouse diversity.
Contact me via email at: alexis [dot] garretson [at] tufts [dot] edu