Please join us for the last Lunch and Learn of the semester. It will be held Thursday, Apr. 17, in Howey N201/202. We will have lunch at 12:00 noon followed by a talk from 12:30 to 1:30 pm.
The speaker for this event will be Chris Zhang from the Hammer/Ratcliff Lab.
Title: The Flow of Fitness
Abstract: Humanity’s journey toward understanding evolution must begin with insight into how a modest individual mutation can broadcast fitness changes into its organism. Central to this field of study is the Distribution of Fitness Effects (DFE), a mapping of how single mutations can affect organismal fitness. While the overall shape of the DFE appears to have a consistent pattern across species and environments, characterization of the DFE in individuals still represents a significant challenge due to its highly context-dependent nature. Despite the apparent universality of DFE patterns, a fundamental framework connecting experimental observations to first-principles remains unexplored. In this talk, I will provide a foundation in evolutionary biology through the lens of DFEs, followed by the presentation of a novel theoretical framework that bridges this gap between observation and theory.
