Austen Barnett

Austen Barnett is an Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at DeSales University. His academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Southern Illinois, postdoctoral research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Harvard University, and teaching experience in Genetics, Developmental Biology, and Bioinformatics.

• Undergraduate: University of Southern Indiana
• Ph.D.: University of Southern Illinois
• Postdoctoral Fellow: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
• Postdoctoral Fellow: Harvard University

Dr. Barnett’s research focuses on the interplay between developmental dynamics and morphological evolution, particularly through Hox gene function, germ cell specification, and axial patterning in insects and arachnids. His lab investigates the ancestral role of the EGF signaling pathway in insect oogenesis and employs developmental and bioinformatic approaches to study eye loss in arachnids.

The articles in his bibliography reflect trends in genomic evolution, gene regulatory networks, and structural biology, with subfields spanning insect developmental genetics, comparative embryology, and enzyme mechanisms in extremophiles. His work bridges molecular genetics and evolutionary biology to address fundamental questions about developmental constraints on morphological diversity.

Labs & Teams: The Barnett Lab at DeSales University collaborates with students on projects involving gene expression analysis, bioinformatics, and developmental experiments in arthropods.