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4700 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Thuwal 23955-6900
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Christian R. Voolstra

Assistant Professor, Marine Science

Red Sea Research Center

Ph.D. Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne, Germany, 2006

Diploma, Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne, Germany, 2001

Research Interests

Professor Voolstra's research interests are in Evolutionary Genomics and Systems Biology of coral reefs. Coral reefs represent one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. They are, however, extremely fragile and endangered due to human imposed exploitation, pollution, and global warming. An Evolutionary Genomics and Systems Biology approach can add to our understanding of reef ecology and conservation efforts. He intends to focus on the following research topics:

  • The role of adaptive evolution and coral-specific genes in molecular mechanisms of bleaching and stress.
  • The molecular machinery of mutualism between corals and algae.
  • The role of prokaryotes in these processes.

Furthermore, Voolstra is interested in Biomineralization, Population Genetics/Genomics, and Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). Dr. Voolstra is an evolutionary biologist at heart that is interested in the big picture by applying whatever techniques are available or by the development of new methods in order to advance research.

Selected Publications

  • Polato NR, Voolstra CR, Schnetzer J, DeSalvo MK, Randall CJ, Szmant AM, Medina M, Baums IB. "Location-specific responses to thermal stress in larvae of the reef-building coral Montastraea faveolata", PLoS One. 5(6):e11221, Jun 2010.
  • Wang H, Zhang H, Wong YH, Voolstra C, Ravasi T, Bajic V, Qian PY. "Rapid transcriptome and proteome profiling of a non-model marine invertebrate, Bugula neritina", Proteomics. [Epub ahead of print], Jun 2010.
  • Staubach, F., Teschke, M., Voolstra, C.R., Wolf, J.B.W., and Tautz. "A test of the neutral model of expression change in natural populations of house mouse subspecies". D. Evolution: Volume 64, Issue 2, Pages 549-60, Feb 2010.
  • Michael K. DeSalvo, Shinichi Sunagawa, Christian R. Voolstra and Monica Medina. "Transcriptomic responses to heat stress and bleaching in the Elkhorn coral Acropora palmata". MEPS, Volume 402: 97-113, 2010.
  • Christian R Voolstra, Julia Schnetzer, Leonid Peshkin, Carly J Randall, Alina M Szmant and Monica Medina. "Effects of temperature on gene expression in embryos of the coral Montastraea faveolata". BMC Genomics, 10:627; doi:10.1186/1471-2164-10-627, 2009.