Ryan Gutenkunst

Ryan Gutenkunst is a Professor in the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology (MCB) and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at the University of Arizona. He also serves as the Department Head of MCB. His research focuses on computational approaches to population genetics, demographic history inference, and evolutionary systems biology. He leads a laboratory based in Life Sciences South, Room 304, with an office in Room 444A.

His work bridges computational methods with empirical genomic data to address questions in cancer genetics, domestication processes, and the evolutionary dynamics of populations. Key themes include mutation bias analysis, genomic drivers of cancer evolution, and the application of machine learning to genetic data interpretation. His lab develops open-source tools for population genetic analysis, such as the Demes standard format and the dadi-cli framework.

Ryan’s research has explored topics ranging from the genomic origins of early farmers to the impact of immunoediting in tumors. His contributions include modeling biases in low-coverage sequencing and advancing methodologies for joint estimation of selection and population history.