Our work focuses on the dynamics and molecular underpinnings of adaptation with particular attention to the role of local adaptation, tradeoffs, and behavior as mechanisms of balancing selection.
Research Overview
Our work focuses on the dynamics and molecular underpinnings of adaptation with particular attention to the role of local adaptation, tradeoffs, and behavior as mechanisms of balancing selection.
Our Commitment
Our lab is committed to promiting an inclusive and safe working environment for everyone. We work to promote diversity in the lab and to critically evaluate the influence of typological thinking in the biological sciences.
Postdoc Priscilla Erickson used D. melanogaster hybrid swarms and a computational pipeline to understand how flies survive harsh winters in temperate latitudes.
We are collaborating with Piedmont Virginia Community College to conduct seasonal Drosophila collections at Carter Mountain Orchard.
Participate in a citizen science project! The Bergland Lab at UVA is looking for volunteers to collect and preserve flying insects from their compost piles this spring, summer, and fall. Click below to read more!
Dörthe Becker, a postdoc in the Bergland lab, was recently awarded a Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship funded by the European Commission.
Karen Barnard-Kubow, a postdoc in the Bergland Lab, was recently awarded a NIH NRSA postdoctoral fellowship.
Alan co-authors a paper in eLife with members of the Johnston lab at Johns Hopkins.
Alan publishes a paper in PNAS.
Dr. Priscilla Erickson wins a JCC post-doctoral fellowship!
The Bergland lab receives its first grant!
Alan recently published a paper in Current Biology about the evolutionary hip and fitness consequences of a super-gene in the white-throated sparrow.
The Bergland Lab is open for business!