ENHG Talk December 8: What is Conservation Genetics? With Dr. Alice Mouton

**This talk will take place over Zoom, and a link will be provided for all who register. The talk itself will begin at 7:30, but you are welcome to log on as early as 7:00 for informal conversation with other members.**

About the talk: 

The recent extinction of many species, and continuous threats to many more, has made conservation biology crucial in the 21st century. With the application of molecular techniques to the study of endangered species, conservation genetics has become a discipline. Genetic variation interpreted in a population genetic context can be used to determine the contemporary status and evolutionary history of a species, and can predict its future. The talk will provide a general introduction to conservation genetics, along with the challenges and promises of the discipline, as well as case studies. 

About the speaker:

Dr. Alice Mouton is a biologist interested in conservation and evolutionary genomics. Her research interests are mainly related to the study of the evolutionary history of mammals, and with the assessment of the biological and genetic diversity of animal populations to promote conservation. She received her PhD at the University of Liege (Belgium), where she applied traditional genetic tools to study a protected rodent (Gliridae) in Europe. She spent four years at UCLA as a postdoc at Robert Wayne’s laboratory, where she worked on several genomic projects, from investigating the effects of anticoagulant rodenticides on bobcats in the Santa Monica Mountains (CA) to determining the contributions of gene expression in olfactory ability among different dog breeds, and reassessing the phylogeny of the direwolf in the canidae family. Alice is now a senior postdoc at the University of Liege, where she is applying genomic tools to study the critically endangered European mink.