Rajendhran Rajakumar

Rajendhran Rajakumar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa, with a cross-appointment in the Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine. He holds a PhD from McGill University and completed postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School and the University of Florida. His research focuses on integrating cell biology, genetics, epigenetics, and evolutionary biology to understand how environmental factors influence developmental processes and drive biodiversity.

Key affiliations include the Rajakumar Lab at the University of Ottawa, which uses ants and Drosophila as model organisms to study Eco-Evo-Devo. His work explores developmental mechanisms underlying phenotypic variation, conserved cellular pathways, and their implications for both evolutionary adaptation and disease.

Rajakumar advises a diverse team of graduate and undergraduate students, as well as postdoctoral fellows. His lab emphasizes collaborative research, inviting students through programs like NSERC-USRA and CO-OP. Notable collaborations include work with the Konrad Lorenz Institute (KLI) in Austria and multiple institutions in Canada and the U.S.

Research interests span ant caste evolution, CRISPR/Cas9 applications, and the intersection of developmental plasticity with ecological and evolutionary processes. The lab’s findings are published in journals like Nature, Biological Reviews, and PNAS.