Department of Integrative Biology

Office:  675 WIDB

Office Phone:  801-422-3495

Email:  keith_crandall@byu.edu

Education

B.A. (1987) from Kalamazoo College in Biology & Mathematics, A.M. (1993) from Washington University in Statistics, Ph.D. (1993) from Washington University in Biology and Biomedical Sciences.

Research Interests

My involvement with cancer research is in the area of sequence analysis and bioinformatics, specializing in detecting links between genetic variation at candidate loci and phenotypic effects.  Also, I am involved in the population genetics and evolutionary biology of cancer associated viruses such as the human T-Cell leukemia/lymphoma virus (HTLV) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Student Involvement/Requirements

I enjoy the interaction with undergraduate student researchers.  I typically require 10 hours per week for at least a one year commitment.  I prefer to have students as early as their freshman year.  The typical lab techniques learned in my lab are DNA isolation, polymerase chain amplification of specific genes, cloning of DNA, and sequencing of DNA.  In addition, we have a large computational facility and many undergraduate researchers in my lab have projects analyzing data obtained from colleagues at the National Cancer Institute and Johns Hopkins Hospital.  With these projects, students learn the basis of sequence alignment, phylogeny reconstruction, and population genetics.  My lab typically has 8 undergraduate students.  The undergraduates work with me, post-docs, graduate students, and other undergraduates, depending on the project.  The undergraduate researchers have received support from various agencies including: NIH, NSF, ORCA, PhRMA, and the BYU Cancer Research Center.  Undergraduates typically receive credit in Zoology 449R as part of their research experience.  Some background in genetics is helpful, but not required.  The work is publication oriented and undergraduates do appear on publications.

Publications

Crandall KA, Templeton AR (1996): Applications of intraspecific phylogenetics. In: New Uses for New Phylogenies, Harvey PH, Brown AJL, Smith JM, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 Crandall KA (1996): Identifying links between genotype and phenotype using marker loci and candidate genes. In: The Impact of Plant Molecular Genetics, Sobral BWS, ed. Birkhauser, Boston.

 Crandall KA (1996): Multiple interspecies transmissions of human and simian T-cell leukemia/lymphoma virus type I sequences. Molecular Biology and Evolution 13:115-131.

 Crandall KA, Templeton AR (1993): Empirical tests of some predictions from coalescence theory. Genetics 134:959-969.

 Templeton AR, Crandall KA and Sing CF (1992): A cladistic analysis of phenotypic associations with haplotypes inferred from restriction endonuclease mapping and DNA sequence data. III. Cladogram estimation. Genetics 132: 619-633.

Department of Integrative Biology