Molecular Biosciences Welcomes Allie Graham to Faculty

LAWRENCE- Allie Graham Ph.D., has joined KU’s Department of Molecular Biosciences as an Assistant Professor of Genomics in the fall of 2024. Alongside teaching, Dr. Graham will be conducting research into the genomes of animals who live in low-oxygen environments, and applying a variety of tools to understand how they survive (and thrive) in such extreme conditions.

Previously, Graham was a NIH K99/R00 + T32 NIH Hematology Training Fellow at the University of Utah in the Human Genetics Department. Using Zebrafish as a biomedical model, she looked into the variety of adaptive traits that all creatures have and tried to find ways of co-opting those advantages in a way that would be beneficial to human health.

“I was [in Utah] for a number of years working on using large genome groupings to look at high altitude adaptations. All these independent lineages including animals like Pika, Panda, Yak] have invaded these high-altitude environments, which are known for being hypoxic-- lacking in oxygen-- and trying to figure out what the common features were in the genomes of these creatures. With the ultimate goal of taking all those values and all those numbers, that you'd get out of these analyzes and then testing them in an actual animal system to see how much they are relevant to of their particular physiology.” Graham said.

Prior to that fellowship, Graham studied hypoxia tolerance in other model organisms, using copepods--little crustaceans— and a high-altitude duck species in her studies. Jumping between different model systems in her studies, while focusing on hypoxia, has allowed her to tie disparate ideas together. For example, while studying copepods, she was able to discover a notable loss of a particular pathway, because she had been so well aquatinted with the mechanism while studying high-altitude vertebrates.

“It's actually yielded some pretty exciting results in terms of being unexpected.” Graham said, “I think [the exposure to multiple research model systems] set me up mentally in a way that allowed me to very quickly pivot and move forward [when hitting a roadblock] because I had already encountered the uncomfortableness of uncertainty.”

Dr. Graham intends to take this flexible research style into her lab at KU; allowing for a fully integrative approach across a multitude of systems, Graham will be able to study hypotheses that are of interests to the biological organismal side of evolution and toward medically relevant research.

“I get to pass on that kind of mindset and the ability to have the flexibility in research to the undergraduates [in my lab]. […] I'm excited to have that ability, to be able to mentor people in a way that I always wanted to be mentored.” Graham said.

Dr. Graham is expected to begin teaching courses in the spring of 2025.