I am an evolutionary biologist committed to understanding the genomic rules that shape phenotypic variation within and among species. Specifically, I study how genomes translate to things like evolutionary novelties (e.g. male pregnancy) and interactions between animal hosts and their resident microbes. I use a variety of computational and statistical approaches to get at these questions, as necessitated by rich, high-dimensional genomic data sets. Specific areas in which I am most active include 1. Using comparative genomics to understand the repeated evolution of derived morphological traits acted on by natural and sexual selection, and 2. Using multi-‘omic data to understand host genetic determinants of microbiome structure and evolution. I’ve long been captivated by teleost fishes and their amazing evolutionary exploration of phenotypic space. They also make fantastic research models, which is why I became a dedicated fish (mostly) guy.

I majored in zoology at the University of Idaho in Moscow, where I graduated in 2003. After a spell working as a field assistant on sea turtle nesting ecology in Barbados and shrub-steppe herpetofauna in Eastern Washington, I joined Pipefishguy Adam Jones’s lab (then at Texas A&M) to work on the genomics of male pregnancy and sexual selection in syngnathid fishes (pipefishes, seahorses, and seadragons) for my PhD.

After graduate school I joined Bill Cresko’s lab at the University of Oregon as a postdoc, where I was heavily involved in development of the threespine stickleback as a genetically diverse model for understanding the genomics of host-microbe interactions. At Oregon I have also continued my original work on the evolution of novel and derived traits in syngnathids (particularly male pregancy), including projects on the assembly, structure, and function of the male pregnancy microbiome. I have also worked with zebrafish biology pioneer Chuck Kimmel to better understand the evolution and development of derived craniofacial bones in sculpin fishes and their relatives.

Currently I am a Research Assistant Professor in the new Data Science Department at the University of Oregon, where I continue my work on analysis of large, multi-platform genomic data sets (in the above research contexts). I also continue to teach graduate-level statistics courses, and I have played a large role in the development of a new master’s program in data science intended to broaden participation in and access to the DS space.

I have developed and taught graduate-level genomics, bioinformatics and statistics courses at the UO since 2013. See my teaching page for more details.

For more information about me and my work, please check out my CV, research interests, and publication list. You can follow me on Twitter @claymsmall and my research on ResearchGate and Google Scholar.