Mark J. Margres
Ph.D., Biology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
B.A., Biology, Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas
E-mail: mark_margres@fas.harvard.edu
Website:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark_Margres

Mark J. Margres is an evolutionary biologist with a focus on adaptation and conservation. His research addresses fundamental questions related to adaptation dynamics in two co-evolving systems: (1) Tasmanian devils and devil facial tumor disease, and (2) venomous snakes and their prey. Mark’s cancer work largely focuses on the genetic basis of adaptation in Tasmanian devils in response to devil facial tumor disease, a species-specific transmissible cancer that threatens the Tasmanian devil with extinction. His work on rattlesnake venoms explores how migration and selection interact to lead to local adaptation, particularly in island populations. Overall, Mark seeks to understand the relationship between genetic and phenotypic complexity and how this relationship can bias the process of adaptation.

Mark’s research integrates field work, next-generation sequencing, and bioinformatics to connect genotype, phenotype, and ecology. His work has been published in top journals including Genetics, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Molecular Ecology, and Genome Biology and Evolution.

As a Hrdy fellow, Mark will focus on the Tasmanian devil-cancer system and determine how multiple mutations in a single tumor affect disease fitness and transmission. Mark will use genomic and transcriptomic datasets to identify the genetic basis of adaptive transmission phenotypes in the cancer as well as characterize the role multiple mutations and tumor heterogeneity play in affecting pathogen fitness. He hopes his work will ultimately lead to more robust predictions regarding cancer and pathogen evolution, which have direct biomedical and conservation implications. Emerging infectious diseases are now the sixth leading cause of species’ declines, and such diseases are expected to only increase as habitat alterations bring species whose niches do not normally overlap into close contact. Thus, predicting the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases has become an urgent priority for conservation and disease management, especially for species threatened with extinction by disease, including the Tasmanian devil.