Elizabeth Ostrowski, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor

Elizabeth Ostrowski, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor

Dr. Elizabeth Ostrowski’s research background is in microbiology, evolutionary genetics and genomics. Her research combines studies of natural populations with laboratory evolution experiments that identify genetic changes in real-time. She has a longstanding interest in genetic conflict, i.e., when the evolutionary interests of different genetic elements are not aligned. Such conflict can occur among different genomes within a cell, among different cells in a body or among different species. It potentially influences diverse processes, from the origins of complex life to health and disease.

Education

  • Michigan State University
    • Ph.D. – Zoology and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior
  • University of Virginia
    • B.A. – Biology

Courses

  • BBIO 200L Intro Biology Lab
  • BBIO 360 Genetics
  • BBIO 495 Investigative Biology

Teaching Interests

Dr. Ostrowski is fascinated by nature’s variation. Why do we look the way we do? How much of this variation reflects genes vs environment? She is also excited by the application of genetic and genomic technologies to our understanding of organismal form, function, and behavior. Her favorite classes to teach have been Genetics, Molecular Ecology (i.e., genetics and genomics of natural populations), and Evolution.

Research and Scholarship Interests

Dr. Ostrowski’s research background is in microbiology, evolutionary genetics, and genomics. Broadly, she is interested in how populations evolve and adapt. In the past, her research has combined studies of natural genetic variation with evolution experiments to identify genetic changes in real-time. She also has a longstanding interest in genetic conflict: when the interests of different genetic elements are not aligned. Genetic conflict can occur among different genomes within a cell (e.g., mitochondrial and nuclear genomes), among different cells in a body (e.g., microchimerism), or among different species (e.g., between hosts and their microbiomes). Since her postdoc she has worked with Dictyostelium discoideum, otherwise known as a social amoeba. Dictyostelium is one of a handful of NIH model organisms for biomedical research. It has been used as a model system for cell-cell communication, phagocytosis, neurodegenerative disease, and multicellular development. She has used this organism to study cell-cell genetic conflicts. Her current research interests are focused on human genetic variation and the potential for genetic conflicts during pregnancy. During pregnancy, cells are exchanged between the mother and foetus, which can persist for decades following pregnancy. However, the impact of these foreign cells (termed ‘microchimerism’) on the health of the mother and baby are not yet understood.

Example Publications

  • Kuzdzal-Fick, J.J., Moreno, A., Broersma, C.M.E., Cooper, T.F., and Ostrowski, E.A. 2023. From individual behaviors to collective outcomes: fruiting body formation in Dictyostelium as a group-level phenotype. Evolution, 77(3):731-745.
  • Broersma C., and Ostrowski, E.A. 2022. Group transformation: fruiting body and stalk formation. Pp 131-150 in The Evolution of Multicellularity. Herron, M.D., Conlin, P.L, and W.C. Ratcliff, eds. CRC Press.
  • Ostrowski, E.A. 2021. Multicellularity: one from many or many from one? Current Biology 30(21):R1306-R1308.
  • Ostrowski, E.A. 2021. Finding the right balance: cooperation and conflict in nature. In: Social Cooperation and Conflict: Biological Mechanisms at the Interface. Wilczynski, W. and S.F. Brosnan, eds. Cambridge University Press.
  • Ostrowski, E.A. 2019. Enforcing cooperation in the social amoebae. Current Biology 29, R474–R484.
  • Rashidi, G. and E.A. Ostrowski. 2019. Phagocyte chase behaviours: discrimination between Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria by amoebae. Biology Letters 15: 20180607.
  • Votaw, H.R. and E.A. Ostrowski. 2017. Stalk size and altruism investment within and across populations of the social amoeba. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 30:2017-2030. *first-generation college
  • Ostrowski, E.A., Shen, Y., Tian, X., Sucgang, R., Jiang, H., Qu, J., Katoh-Kurasawa, M., Brock, D.A., Dinh, C., Lara-Garduno, F., Lee, S.L., Kovar, C.L., Dinh, H.H., Korchina, V., Jackson, L., Patil, S., Han, Y., Chaboub, L., Shaulsky, G., Muzny, D.M., Worley, K.C., Gibbs, R.A., Richards, S., Kuspa, A., Strassmann, J.E., and D.C. Queller. 2015. Genomic signatures of cooperation and conflict in the social amoeba. Current Biology, 25:1661-1665.