Research associate - Bielawski Research Group

• Ph.D. Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, 2001 Texas A&M University
• M.A. Biology, 1994 Hofstra University
• B.S. Biology, 1990 Long Island University Southampton

Research Interests

My current research centers around analysis of genes and organisms in various microbiomes. I am examining microbiomes related to human health including gut, skin, and vaginal microbiomes. In addition I am examining microbiomes from different environments mostly relating to oceans. The group is working on developing new techniques to examine the genes and/or organisms that may define different aspects of microbiomes. We are looking for relationships between the health status of individuals and the composition of their microbiomes; both at the gene and OTU level.

Publications

Dunn, K.A., W. Jiang, C. Field, and J.P. Bielawski. 2013. Improving evolutionary models in mitochondrial protein data with site-class specific amino acid exchangeability matrices. PLoS ONE 8(1): e55816

Gu, H., K.A. Dunn, and J.P. Bielawski. 2011. Likelihood based clustering (LiBaC) for codon models. in Codon Evolution (G.M. Cannarozzi and A. Schneider eds.). Oxford University Press.

Rowe, D.L., K.A. Dunn, R.M. Adkins, and R.L. Honeycutt. 2010. Molecular clock keeps dispersal hypothesis afloat: evidence for trans-Atlantic rafting by rodents. Journal of biogeography. 37:305-324.

Dunn, K.A., J.P. Bielawski, T.J. Ward, C. Urquhart and H. Gu. 2009. Reconciling ecological and genomic divergence among lineages of Listeria under an extended mosaic genome concept. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 26: 2605-2615.

Ward, T.J., T.F. Ducey, T. Usgaard, K.A. Dunn, and J.P. Bielawski. 2008. A multilocus genotyping assay for SNP-based subtyping of Listeria monocytogenes. Applied and Enviromental Microbiology. 74: 7570-7577.

Bao, L., H. Gu, K.A. Dunn, and J.P. Bielawski. 2008. Likelihood Based Clustering (LiBaC) for codon models, a method for grouping sites according to similarities in the underlying process of molecular evolution. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 25: 1995-2007.

Anisimova, M., J.P. Bielawski, K.A. Dunn, and Z. Yang. 2007. Phylogenomic analysis of natural selection pressure in Streptococcus. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 7:154.

Hurley, I.A., R.L. Lockridge Mueller, K.A. Dunn, E.J. Schmidt, M. Friedman, R.K. Ho, V.E. Prince, Z. Yang, M.G. Thomas, and M.I. Coates. 2007. A new time-scale for ray-finned fish evolution. Proc. R. Soc. B. 274:489-498.

Bao, L., H. Gu, K.A. Dunn, and J.P. Bielawski. 2007. Methods for selecting fixed-effect models for heterogeneous codon evolution, with comments on their application to gene and genome data. BMC Evolutionary Biology 7:S5

Bielawski, J.P., K.A. Dunn, G. Sabehi, and O. Béjà. 2004. Darwinian adaptation of proteorhodopsin to different light intensities in the marine environment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 101:14824-14829.

Dunn, K.A., J.D. McEachran, and R.L. Honeycutt. 2003. Molecular phylogenetics of myliobatiform fishes (Chondrichthyes: Myliobatiformes), with comments on the effects of missing data on parsimony and likelihood. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 27:259-270.

Dunn, K.A., J.P. Bielawski, and Z. Yang. 2001. Rates and patterns of synonymous substitutions in Drosophila: implications for translational selection. Genetics 157:295-305.

Bielawski, J.P., K.A. Dunn, and Z. Yang. 2000. Rates of nucleotide substitution and mammalian nuclear gene evolution: approximate and maximum-likelihood methods lead to different conclusions. Genetics 156:1299-1308.

McEachran, J.D., and K.A. Dunn. 1998. Phylogenetic analysis of skates, a morphologically conservative clade of elasmobranchs (Chondrichthyes: Rajidae). Copeia 2:271-290.

Morrissey, J.F., K.A. Dunn, and F. Mulé. 1997. The phylogenetic position of Megachasma pelagios inferred from mtDNA sequence data. Pages 33-37 in Biology of the megamouth shark (K. Yano, J. F. Morrissey, Y. Yabumoto, and K. Nakaya, eds.). Tokai University Press, Tokyo, Japan.

McEachran, J.D., K.A. Dunn, and T. Miyake. 1996. Interrelationships within the batoid fishes (Chondrichthyes:Batoidea). Pages 63-84 in Interrelationship of fishes (M. L. J. Stiassney, L. R. Parenti, and G. D. Johnson, eds.). Academic Press, New York.

Dunn, K.A., and J.F. Morrissey. 1995. Molecular phylogeny of elasmobranchs. Copeia 3:526-531.