Welcome to the Schmidt-Ott Lab
Evolutionary Developmental Biology of Insects
Research
The interaction of evolution and development shapes organismic diversity. In the Schmidt-Ott Lab, we study how evolution affects embryos. Embryogenesis is a critical and vulnerable phase in the life of complex organisms. And yet, embryogenesis accommodates rapid evolutionary change. By combining comparative-phylogenetic and molecular-mechanistic approaches we seek to understand what drives the evolution of embryogenesis. Our model is the insect order Diptera, which includes flies, such as the traditional genetic model organism Drosophila melanogaster, but also mosquitoes and many other midges.
Lab News
- Congratulations to Abubacarr who has been selected as a 2024-2025 Quad Undergraduate Research Scholar. As a Quad Scholar, he will receive a grant supported by the Hoeft Family Research Fund, for his research with us!
Recent Preprints now available on bioRxiv:
- Amiri, E. E., Tenger-Trolander, A., Li, M., Julian, A. T., Kasan, K., Sanders, S. A., Blythe, S. and Schmidt-Ott, U. (2025). Conservation of symmetry breaking at the level of chromatin accessibility between fly species with unrelated anterior determinants. bioRxiv
- Tenger-Trolander, A., Amiri, E., Gantz, V., Kwan, C. W., Sanders, S. A. and Schmidt-Ott, U. (2025). Genomic Resources for the Scuttle Fly Megaselia abdita: A Model Organism for Comparative Developmental Studies in Flies.
Urs Schmidt-Ott, PhD
Professor
Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy
Committee on Development Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology
Committee on Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology
Committee on Evolutionary Biology
Office
Anatomy room 309
University of Chicago
1027 East 57th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
Lab
Anatomy room 305
University of Chicago
1027 East 57th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
