معرفی
Dr. Elizabeth King is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri, affiliated with the College of Arts and Science. Her research focuses on genomic approaches to understand life history evolution, leveraging insect models like Drosophila to explore genetic basis of traits such as longevity, thermal tolerance, and behavioral plasticity. She holds a PhD from the University of California-Riverside (2010).
Research Interests
Her work integrates quantitative genetics and genomics to study how genetic variation contributes to life history strategies. Key areas include fluctuating selection pressures, recombination landscapes driven by transposable elements, and the genetic underpinnings of learning and memory in Drosophila. Recent studies investigate thermal adaptation and diet-dependent fitness trade-offs in multiparent populations.
Awards
- Associate Professor of the Year Award (2022)
- Postdoctoral Mentor Award (2021)
- Dr. Abraham Eisenstark Faculty Fellowship (2020)
- Shouson & Yunying-Kou Jen Junior Faculty Research Award (2019)
Research & GrantsDr. King’s lab emphasizes collaborative projects linking behavior and quantitative genomics. She has pioneered high-throughput methods for fecundity estimation and developed frameworks for analyzing population-level linkage disequilibrium. Ongoing work explores evolutionary potential of diet-lifespan interactions and molecular mechanisms of pathogen defense in insects.
Labs/TeamsHer lab is part of Missouri’s Biological Sciences department, collaborating with institutions on projects involving Drosophila synthetic population resources and evolve-and-resequence approaches. She mentors students in genomic analysis of complex traits and quantitative genetics methodologies.
