Dr. Alex Van Dam

Ph.D en Entomología, Universidad de California-Davis

Oficina 

  • Lab Entomología 009
  • Extensión  2771

Áreas de Interés/Especialidad

  • Entomología
  • Evolución
  • Metagenómica
  • Filogenética y taxonomía

Cursos

  • BIOL 6015 (Insect Morphology)
  • BIOL 6806 (Systematic Biology)
  • ZOOL 6058 (Insect Taxonomy)

Proyectos de investigación en progreso

  • Using computer vision to automate taxonomic species descriptions and databasing.
  • Biodiscovery of leaf litter arthropods and linking them to collections via Nanopore Sequencing.
  • Metagenomic filtering applied to Arthropod genome assembly using long-read NGS data.
  • Phylogenetic diversity of the Millipede Microbiome, key tropical leaf litter decomposers.
  • Developing CRISPR/Cas-9 and micro-injection teaching and research workflow for arthropods (via Drosophila melanogaster…for now).
  • Phylogenomics of Colpopterini (Fulgoroidea: Nogodinidae)
  • Phylogenomics of Scolopendromorpha using UCE’s

Publicaciones

  • Bahder BW, Myrie W, Helmick EE, Van Dam AR, Bartlett CR. A new species of planthopper in the genus Jamaha (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Nogodinidae) from the Northeastern coast of Jamaica. Zootaxa. 2023;5263: 261–272. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5263.2.5.
  • Van Dam AR, Covas Orizondo JO, Lam AW, McKenna DD, Van Dam MH. Metagenomic clustering reveals microbial contamination as an essential consideration in ultraconserved element design for phylogenomics with insect museum specimens. Ecology and Evolution. 2022;12: e8625. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8625
  • Rodriguez Ruiz A, Van Dam AR. BioProject [PRJNA817621]: Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US), National Center for Biotechnology Information;Cosmopolites sordidus Genome sequencing and assembly. In: BioProject [PRJNA817621]: Bethesda (MD). 2022. Available: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject?LinkName=sra_bioproject&from_uid=21002281
  • Rodriguez Ruiz AR, Van Dam AR. A New Species of Decuanellus Osella (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Molytinae: Lymantini) from Maricao State Forest, Puerto Rico. The Coleopterists Bulletin. 2021;75: 645–650. 
  • Massini Espino M, Mychajliw AM, Almonte JN, Allentoft ME, Van Dam AR. Raptor roosts as invasion archives: insights from the first black rat mitochondrial genome sequenced from the Caribbean. Biological Invasions. 2021; 1–9. 
  • Locke SA, Drago FB, López-Hernández D, Chibwana FD, Núñez V, Van Dam A, et al. Intercontinental distributions, phylogenetic position and life cycles of species of Apharyngostrigea (Digenea, Diplostomoidea) illuminated with morphological, experimental, molecular and genomic data. International Journal for Parasitology. 2021;51: 667–683. 
  • Locke SA, Van Dam A, Caffara M, Pinto HA, López-Hernández D, Blanar CA. Validity of the Diplostomoidea and Diplostomida (Digenea, Platyhelminthes) upheld in phylogenomic analysis. International journal for parasitology. 2018;48: 1043–1059. doi:10.1016/j.ijpara.2018.07.001.
  • Christodoulides N, Van Dam AR, Peterson DA, Frandsen RJN, Mortensen UH, Petersen B, et al. Gene expression plasticity across hosts of an invasive scale insect species. Doucet D, editor. PLOS ONE. 2017;12: e0176956. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0176956