Tauana Cunha Lab

Our lab investigates the evolution of invertebrate animals across variable spatial and temporal scales. Whether diving for snails in tropical waters, sequencing DNA from decades-old museum specimens, or assembling reference genomes from non-model species, our research uncovers the evolutionary relationships, biogeographic histories, and genomic innovations that have generated Earth's spectacular invertebrate diversity. Marine gastropods are a major focus of our work, but we are passionate about biodiversity across the animal tree of life. We welcome students and postdocs excited about comparative work, animal evolution, and computational biology to join our team at Loyola University Chicago.