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Matthew Gilley

Ph.D. Student

Pillai

Joined: 2025

Profile

My broad focus in the lab is how evolution produces functional proteins from scratch. I study this in viruses, whose high mutation rates and compact genomes make them excellent models for watching new genes emerge—cases where a stretch of noncoding sequence starts getting translated into a working protein. When I'm not in the lab, you can find me doing something outside—usually running or playing tennis!