Sara Branco
I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in fungal ecology and evolution and my laboratory at the Department of Integrative Biology at University of Colorado Denver focuses on the origins and maintenance of fungal diversity and adaptation. My studies range biological scales, from ecological communities to genomes and genes, and have a particular emphasis on local adaptation.
I started studying fungi when I was 16 years old and have since conducted multiple studies on fungal ecology and evolution. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where I investigated adaptation of ectomycorrhizal fungal communities and their oak partner to serpentine soils. I was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California (Berkeley) studying population genomics and adaptation of Suillus brevipes, a North American mycorrhizal fungus associated with pine trees, and at Université de Paris-Sud, where I investigated the evolution of mating-type chromosomes in anther smut fungi.