Jolien van Hooff
I am fascinated by the origin, limitations, and diversity of eukaryotic cells, particularly unicellular eukaryotes. While eukaryotes share many intracellular features, their cells and underlying regulatory systems also display immense diversity. This likely and observable diversity is the result of molecular and genomic evolution—processes I aim to make tangible and explain. These processes include gene divergence, loss, duplication, and horizontal transfer between different species. My approach primarily involves tracing protein evolution using bioinformatics. I am extensively trained in small-scale analyses of individual protein families, as well as in comparative genomics and phylogenetics.