Welcome to the home page of Bruce Rannala. I'm a Professor of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California Davis. I develop statistical methods, computer software, and occasionally new theoretical ideas. I also teach a course on human genetic variation (EVE 131) each Fall. Research in my group focuses mainly on technical problems in statistical genetics, population genetics, and phylogenetics. However, our methods have sometimes been applied (by us or others) to real world problems such as: pandemics (HIV, COVID19), cancer genetics, conservation biology, disease gene mapping, and so on. We sometimes collaborate with Ziheng Yang's group at UCL and Brian Moore's group (next door).
Examples of Current Projects
A new Bayesian method for inferring ages of latent lineages of HIV using sequence data (PhD student Anna Nagel)
A Bayesian exact likelihood method for inferring F1 hybrid and F2 backcross individuals using genomic sequences (PhD student Sneha Chakraborty)
New phylodynamics models with spatiotemporal variation in rates of spread applied to SARS-CoV2 data (PhD student Jiansi Gao, postdoc Mike May and collaborator Brian Moore)
Extending the multispecies coalescent model in the BPP phylogenetics package to allow introgression and ongoing gene flow between species (with collaborators Ziheng Yang and Tomas Flouris)