My research utilizes the concepts of variation, functional compromise, and historical constraint as fundamental explanatory principles to address basic biomedical questions through the lens of evolution. My lab combines classical embryology in a range of model and non-model systems with modern genetic tools and advanced methods for quantifying and comparing phenotypes at a range of scales. This approach yields significant insights into not only the processes that contribute to evolutionary diversity among species, but also how individual differences ranging from normal to disease states are generated. My research therefore investigates both normal mechanisms of development as well as the etiology of structural birth defects, and is relevant to longstanding goals of providing personalized and predictive medicine.