Hennelly Lab
Indian wolf. Photo: Muddasir Riaz Malik
The Hennelly Lab studies how animals evolve, adapt, and are impacted by anthropogenic change using genomic tools. We integrate genomic sequencing with fieldwork, museum collections, and the natural history of the organisms to answer various evolutionary questions.
A major goal is to ensure our scientific findings contribute to preserving biodiversity, and therefore we work closely with international and local partners to translate our findings to inform conservation policy and decisions.
News
August 2026 – New semester is starting! We welcome to the lab our new PhD students — Gabe Monahan and Joey Mancusi!
April 2026 – An exciting paper just published on the largest genomic study on African Elephants in Nature Communications! Many important insights to guide conservation efforts on these amazing animals.
March 2026 – Our News and Views about ancient dogs in Europe is published in Nature!
February 2026 – Lauren travels to India to visits collaborators at the Wildlife Institute of India. Such a fun time of research and hanging out with old friends!
January 2026 – Annamika Konkola joins the lab as our first undergraduate member. She will be studying genetic variants associated with specific phenotypic traits in modern and ancient dog genomes for this semester.
January 2026 – Our large paper on a continent-wide view of genomic diversity and divergence for wolves of Asia is out! This was a large effort among many collaborators, and puts a needed spotlight on evolutionary lineages found in Asia.
November 2025 – New publication out on wolf-dog hybridization and quantifying dog ancestry in Italian wolves!
October 2025 – Another exciting update! Our primer on inbreeding and its implications for conservation was published in BMC Biology!
October 2025 – First IUCN Red List Assessment of the Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) published. Indian wolves are listed as Vulnerable — high risk of extinction! Many news articles in India and Pakistan covered this recent update in its status
July 2025 – Hennelly Lab starts in the Department of Biosciences at Rice University!
We are located on the second floor of the Anderson Biological Laboratory at Rice University in Houston, Texas, USA
Hennelly Lab 