understanding eye evolution

Eye evolution has been central to the debate of evolutionary mechanism since On the Origin of Species1. With the incredible abundance of visual organs found across animals, with their ecological function familiar, and their behavioral and physiological readouts measurable, the visual system is an exceptional context to study both organ diversity and the evolution of complexity.

questions in our lab

In the Koenig Lab we are interested in how eyes evolved.  We study the developmental basis of phenotypic diversity found across animal visual systems. We are interested in how developmental processes change to generate this diversity. 

Our Approach

We study how complex morphological structures are formed, how cell type diversity is generated, and the gene regulatory changes that underlie these processes. We use a comparative approach to study these questions, studying the visual systems of many organisms across the tree. The power of comparative approaches is that they can reveal non-obvious and conserved mechanisms found common to organ formation. Recognizing these mechanisms not only deepens our basic understanding of complex organ development and evolution, it can generate new disease candidates and practical new models for human health.