From codons
to viromes.

I build statistical models and software to study how genes evolve. My work ranges from testing how natural selection shapes a single gene to mapping RNA virus diversity across cities.

Explore research

Illustrative viral gene tree. Orange indicates positive selection, teal indicates purifying selection, and gray indicates neutral evolution. On an orange branch, GAU becomes GGU, changing aspartate to glycine. On a teal branch, UUU becomes UUC, retaining phenylalanine.

Research areas

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Statistical Molecular Evolution

How do changes within a codon affect tests for selection?

Computational Methods for Evolutionary Genomics

How can we compare selection across hundreds of genes or clades?

Large-Scale Viral Genomics and Meta-omics

What can environmental RNA reveal about viral diversity?

Alexander G. Lucaci, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Associate in Systems and Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. I earned my Ph.D. in Bioinformatics at Temple University, where I studied molecular evolution in the Viral Evolution Group.