Dannie Durand

Dr. Dannie Durand is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), part of the Mellon College of Science. She leads the Durand Lab, which focuses on computational molecular biology and genomics, particularly the role of gene duplication in vertebrate evolution. Her work integrates computational methods with biological data to understand genomic organization and function.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Columbia University
• Postdoctoral Fellowships: University of Pennsylvania (Computational Biology), Princeton University (Molecular Biology via Sloan Fellowship)

Research Interests:

• Evolutionary analysis of gene duplication and genomic architecture
• Computational methods for multidomain protein families
• Phylogenetic reconciliation and evolutionary event modeling

Key Contributions:

• Developed software tools like Notung for gene tree analysis
• Explored evolutionary mechanisms behind vertebrate genome complexity
• Investigated bacterial gene acquisition and sporulation pathways

Awards & Grants:

• David and Lucile Packard Fellowship ($625K)
• NIH Grant ($1M)
• Sloan Computational Biology Fellowship

Teaching & Mentorship:

• Course: Computational Molecular Biology and Genomics
• Guided over 30 students through PhD, MS, and undergraduate programs

Labs & Collaborations:

• Active in interdisciplinary research at CMU's Computational Biology Program
• Collaborations with institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and University of Pennsylvania