Download Professor Mario A. Fares SHORT CV

Professor Mario A. Fares
SHORT CV
Lecturer and Head of Laboratory (2006 - Present)
Department of Genetics, University of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Lecturer and Head of Laboratory (2003-2006)
Department of Biology, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland.
SFI Post-doctoral researcher (2002-2003)
Department of Genetics, University of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
RESEARCH
My research focuses on the understanding of how novel biological functions emerge in nature. In particular, we study
the role of mutational robustness in allowing innovative mutations to become fixed in the genomes maintaining a
genetic reservoir for future adaptations. Chief among robustness mechanisms are gene duplication and heat-shock
proteins, both of which have been shown to ameliorate the effects of destabilizing mutations. To understand the role of
these mechanisms we use theoretical, computational and experimental approaches. Essentially, we design methods to
identify mutations conferring proteins new functions and conduct mutation accumulation experiments (evolution
experiments) in the lab to build bacterial fossil records. These records make it possible following the interaction
dynamics between mutations, the effects of environment (for example, stress) on facilitating the emergence of
biological complexity and the role of heat-shock proteins on canalizing the success of such complexity.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
1. Lorenzo Carretero-Paulet and Mario A. Fares. (2012). Evolutionary dynamics and functional specialization of plant
paralogs formed by whole and small-scale genome duplications. Molecular Biology and Evolution. In press.
2. Xiaowei Jiang and Mario A. Fares. (2011). Functional diversification of the Twin-Arginine translocation pathway
mediates the emergence of novel ecological adaptations. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 28: 3183-3193.
3. Tom A. Williams, Francisco F. Codoñer, Christina Toft and Mario A. Fares. (2010). Two chaperonin systems in bacterial
genomes with distinct ecological roles. Trends in Genetics 26: 47-51.
4. Christina Toft and Mario A: Fares. (2010). Structural calibration of the rates of amino acid evolution in a search for
Darwin in drifting biological systems. Molecular Biology and Evolution 27:2375-2385.
5. Christina Toft, Tom A. Williams and Mario A. Fares. (2009). Genome-wide functional divergence after the symbiosis of
proteobacteria with insects unraveled through a novel computational approach. PLoS Computational Biology
5(4):e1000344.
ADDRESS
Smurfit Institute of Genetics,
Lincoln Place Gate,
Dublin 2,
Ireland.