University of Maryland · Department of Biology

Understanding, predicting, and controlling evolution

We combine novel wet lab experiments with theoretical tools from population genetics, statistical physics, and evolutionary game theory to understand how large asexual populations like bacteria and cancer evolve, particularly in response to treatment.

Maltas Lab Logo
Featured

Key Publications

View all publications
Updates

Lab News


Focus Areas

What We Study

01
Coupled eco-evolutionary processes.
We seek to understand the evolution of large asexual populations at the intersection of evolutionary and ecological timescales.
02
Controllability of eco-evolutinary systems.
Whether it's an invasive species or a resistant tumor subpopulation, we try to leverage eco-evolutionary processes to control ecosystems and evolutionary populations..
03
Understanding multi-drug interactions
Eco-evolutionary systems are constantly subjected to combinations of environments (e.g. multi-drug cocktails). Understanding how populations evolve in response to multiple environments is critical to evolutionary control.
Explore our research programs