| Department of Biology, U.Va.

Professor of Biology; Director, Program in Fundamental Neuroscience; Co-Director of the Brain Institute; Faculty Director, CORE Scholars Program (HHMI Driving Change Initiative)

Saurabh Kulkarni

Assistant Professor, Cell Biology, Center for Membrane and Cell Physiology (Courtesy Appointment)

Tracy Larson

Assistant Professor of Biology

Xiaorong Liu

Associate Professor of Biology and Psychology

Xiaowei Lu

Professor, Cell Biology (Courtesy Appointment)

Jessamyn Manson

Associate Professor of Biology, General Faculty

Ann Massey

Assistant Professor of Biology, General Faculty

Daniel McIntyre

Assistant Professor

Deforest Mellon, Jr.

Emeritus Professor of Biology

J. James Murray

Emeritus Professor of Biology

Eric Nagy

Professor of Biology, General Faculty, Director of Plant Growth Facilities; Associate Director, Mountain Lake Biological Station

Eyleen Jorgelina O'Rourke

Associate Professor of Biology and Cell Biology

Ariel Pani

Assistant Professor of Biology

David Parichy

Pratt-Ivy Foundation Distinguished Professor of Morphogenesis

Ammasi Periasamy

Professor, General Faculty, of Biology and Biomedical Engineering; Center Director, WM Keck Center for Cellular Imaging

Ignacio Provencio

Professor of Biology, Assoc. Chair of Biology

Aakrosh Ratan

Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences (Courtesy Appointment)

Stephen S. Rich

Director, Center for Public Health Genomics; Harrison Professor of Public Health Sciences (Courtesy Appointment)

Deborah Roach

Emerita Professor of Biology

Dorothy Schafer

Emerita Professor of Biology

Drew Schield

Assistant Professor of Biology

Jung-Bum Shin

Associate Professor, Neuroscience (Courtesy Appointment)

Sarah Siegrist

Associate Professor of Biology

Douglas Taylor

Commonwealth Professor of Biology, Chair of Biology, Director of the Distinguished Major Program in Biology

Michael P. Timko

Lewis & Clark Professor of Biology, Professor of Public Health Science, Director of Human Biology Distinguished Major Program

Henry Wilbur

Emeritus Professor of Biology

Bettina Winckler

Professor of Cell Biology (Courtesy Appointment)

Melanie Worley

Assistant Professor

Michael Wormington

Associate Professor of Biology, Faculty Fellow Jefferson Scholars Foundation

Martin Wu

Professor of Biology

Katja Kasimatis

Assistant Professor of Biology

PLSB 412

[email protected]

(434) 924-6879

Curriculum Vitae

Education

B.S., University of California Santa Cruz (marine biology with Honors), 2013
Ph.D., University of Oregon, 2019
Postdoc, University of Toronto, 2019-2023

Research Interests

Why are there different sexes? What are the functional and evolutionary consequences of this sexual differentiation. The existence of sexual reproduction is so pervasive across complex organisms that it is easy to forget how extraordinary it is for such varying degrees of sexual differentiation to emerge from a largely shared genome, which has important short-term consequences for individuals and long-term influence on the evolution of species. Research in the lab leverages the power of the Caenorhabditis nematode model systems to relate the action of sex-specific selection on phenotypes to the evolution of their genetic architecture. Our ongoing work integrates genetic engineering, experimental evolution, genomics, population genetic theory, and evolutionary ecology to discover how sexual differentiation arises, persists, and impacts genomes.

Representative Publications

Kasimatis KR, Moerdyk-Schauwecker MJ, Lancaster R, Smith A, Willis JH & Phillips PC (2022) Post-insemination selection dominates pre-insemination selection in driving rapid evolution of male competitive ability. PLoS Genetics 18(2): e1010063.
Kasimatis, KR Abraham A, Ralph PL, Kern AD, Capra JA & Phillips PC (2021) Evaluating human autosomal loci for sexually antagonistic viability selection in two large biobanks. Genetics 217:1-10.
Kasimatis KR, Sanchez-Ramirez S, & Stevenson ZC (2021) Sexual dimorphism through the lens of genome manipulation, forward genetics, and spatio-temporal sequencing. Genome Biology and Evolution 13:1-13.
Kasimatis KR, Ralph PL & Phillips PC (2019) Limits to genomic divergence under sexually antagonistic selection. G3 9:3813-3824.
Kasimatis KR, Moerdyk-Schauwecker MJ, Timmermeyer N & Phillips PC (2018) Proteomic and evolutionary analyses of sperm activation identify uncharacterized genes in Caenorhabditis nematodes. BMC Genomics 19:1-13.
Kasimatis KR, Moerdyk-Schauwecker MJ & Phillips PC (2018) Auxin-mediated sterility induction system for longevity and mating studies in Caenorhabditis elegans. G3 8:2655-2662.
Kasimatis KR & Phillips PC (2018) Rapid gene family evolution of a nematode sperm protein despite sequence hyper-conservation. G3 8:353-362.
Borne F^, Kasimatis KR & Phillips PC (2017) Quantifying male and female pheromone-based mate choice in Caenorhabditis nematodes using a novel microfluidic technique. PLoS ONE 12:e0189679.
Kasimatis KR, Nelson TC & Phillips PC (2017) The genomic signatures of sexual conflict. J. Heredity 108:780-790.
Kasimatis K & Riginos C (2016) No simple trade-offs: relationships between egg size, clutch size, spawning mode, adult body size, and latitude in reef fishes. Coral Reefs. 35:387-397.