Asher Leeks

We study social evolution in viruses. Viruses are intrinsically social organisms; every aspect of the viral lifecycle can be influenced by social interactions, from replication within a cell to transmission between hosts. Viral sociality raises new questions for evolutionary theory, providing the opportunity to challenge and expand our view of how social interactions evolve. At the same time, understanding viral sociality would open a new window into the biology of Earth's most prolific parasites. Our lab combines three main methodological approaches:

1. We build theoretical models to explain the evolution of puzzling viral social traits, often drawing on frameworks within evolutionary game theory and population genetics.

2. We conduct bioinformatic and statistical analyses of viral sequencing datasets, in order to understand the natural history of sociality in viruses.

3. We experimentally evolve bacteriophages in the laboratory, in order to test evolutionary models, and to allow ourselves to be inspired by evolution's creativity.

We are currently looking interested postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates in all areas. For more details, please see our lab website.