I started in the Biology program at Governors State in the fall of 2021 and teach a variety of courses including General Biology I, Genetics, Conservation Genetics, Junior Seminar, and a Bioinformatics workshop. I love teaching and doing research here because I get to meet so many fascinating students with such varied interests from environmental biology to pre-professional and pre-health programs. In particular, I love teaching general biology because it is often the first biology course that students take and students grow and change so much in their first semester as they find their passions.
Prior to starting at Governors State I taught at a small college, Drury University, in Springfield MO for three years. Before that I conducted research into shark genomics and transcriptomics at Cornell University as a Postdoctoral Researcher that culminated in the first genome sequence for the Great White Shark. I received my Ph.D. from Purdue University in Molecular Evolutionary Genetics in 2013 for research into osmoregulation in desert rodents and I received a B.S. in biology and Chemistry minor from Hope College in Holland, MI in 2008.
My research interests can be summarized by using genomic and transcriptomic datasets to identify and study ways that organisms adapt to their environments. I do this utilizing publicly available data in a variety of species and contexts from desert rodents to sharks and have even been involved in projects identifying the species present in unknown infections in a veterinary context.
My other interest is in population genetics and utilizing genetic data to help in conservation efforts. I am currently looking for interested undergraduate and prospective M.S. students to join in these projects using computational techniques to identify patterns of selection in available datasets, please email me if you are interested and see my webpage for examples of past research.
Selected Recent publications: *indicates undergraduate author
Stanhope M.J., Ceres, K.M., Sun Q., Wang M., Zehr J.D., Marra N.J., Wilder A.P., Bernard A.M., Pavinski-Bitar P., Lokey M.G., Shivji M.S. (2023) Genomes of endangered great hammerhead and shortfin mako sharks reveal historic population declines and high levels of inbreeding in great hammerhead. iScience, 26(1).
Harder A.M., Walden K.K.O., Marra N.J., Willoughby J.R., (2022) High-quality
reference genome for an arid-adapted mammal, the banner-tailed kangaroo rat (Dipodomys spectabilis). Genome Biology and Evolution, 14(1).
Needle D.B., Gibson R., Hollingshead N.A., Sidor I.F., Marra N.J., Rothenheber D., Thachil A.J., Stanhope B.J.*, Stevens B.A., Ellis J.C., Spanswick S., Murray M., Goodman L.B. (2019) Atypical Dermatophytosis in 12 North American Porcupines (Erethizon dorsatum) from the Northeastern United States 2010–2017. Pathogens, 8(4), 171.
Gorman J.*, Marra N.J., Shivji M.S., Stanhope M.J. (2019) The complete mitochondrial genome of an Atlantic Ocean Shortfin Mako Shark, Isurus oxyrinchus. Mitochondrial DNA Part B: Resources, 4(2), 3642-3643.
Marra N.J., Stanhope M.J., Jue N.K., Wang M., Sun Q., Pavinski-Bitar P., Richards V.P., Komissarov A., Rayko M., Kliver S., Stanhope B.J.*, Winkler C., O’Brien S.J., Antunes A., Jorgensen S., Shivji M.S. (2019) White shark genome reveals ancient elasmobranch adaptations associated with wound healing and the maintenance of genome stability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(10): 4446-4455.