Melissa A. Wilson

Wilson was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and lived there until she was five, then moving to Garland, Texas, then Tempe, Arizona, then to Syracuse, Nebraska. She graduated from Syracuse High School in Nebraska{{Cite web|url=https://heliuma16.imascientist.us/profile/|title=Profile – Helium Zone|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-13}} and received her B.S. in Medical Mathematics with Honors in May 2005 from Creighton University under Lance Nielsen.{{Citation|title=CV|url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56a2965eab2810d951ae42d9/t/56a321399cadb63cd2befed3/1453531457322/WilsonSayres_CV_long.pdf}}

She received her Ph.D. in integrative biology at Pennsylvania State University under her thesis advisor Kateryna Makova in 2011. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship under Rasmus Nielsen at UC Berkeley in 2014.

She was professionally known as Melissa A. Wilson Sayres from 2010 until her divorce from Scott Sayres, a physical chemist,{{Cite web|url=http://mathbionerd.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-last-name-is-two-words-take-two.html|title=mathbionerd: My last name is two words, take two|last=Melissa A. Wilson Sayres|date=2010-12-16|website=mathbionerd|access-date=2019-11-13}} in 2019.{{Cite web|url=http://mathbionerd.blogspot.com/2019/03/changing-your-name-after-divorce-in.html|title=mathbionerd: Changing your name after divorce in academia|last=Melissa A. Wilson|date=2019-03-02|website=mathbionerd|access-date=2019-11-13}} Together they have one daughter.

Wilson is an assistant professor of genomics, evolution, and bioinformatics at Arizona State University. There she is PI of the Sex Chromosome Lab, where she studies genome evolution, mutation rate variation, and population history. One finding of her lab is that crossing over between the X and Y chromosomes occurs in some regions of the chromosomes more often than was previously thought.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160323101639.htm|title=Blurred lines: Human sex chromosome swapping occurs more often than previously thought|website=ScienceDaily|language=en|access-date=2019-06-13}} Another discovery is that the Y chromosome is not decreasing in size,{{Cite web|url=https://news.berkeley.edu/2014/01/09/study-dispels-theories-of-y-chromosomes-demise/|title=Study dispels theories of Y chromosome's demise|date=2001-11-30|website=Berkeley News|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-13}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.livescience.com/24718-y-chromosome-not-junk.html|title=Guys, Your Y Chromosome Is an Evolutionary Marvel|last=Ghose|first=Tia|website=Live Science|date=12 November 2012 |access-date=2019-06-13}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/10/y-chromosome-extinction_n_4570390.html|title=Y Chromosome Likely To Stop Shrinking, Scientists Say (Phew!)|date=2014-01-10|website=HuffPost UK|language=en|access-date=2019-11-13}} which contradicts previously publicised claims that the Y chromosome might disappear.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17127617|title=Male extinction theory challenged|last=Bowdler|first=Neil|date=2012-02-22|access-date=2019-12-11|language=en-GB}}

She also discovered evidence of a Y chromosome population bottleneck in human history.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sciencealert.com/neolithic-y-chromosome-bottleneck-warring-patrilineal-clans|title=Something Weird Happened to Men 7,000 Years Ago, And We Finally Know Why|last=Starr|first=Michelle|website=ScienceAlert|date=31 May 2018 |language=en-gb|access-date=2019-06-13}}{{Cite web|url=https://psmag.com/environment/17-to-1-reproductive-success|title=8,000 Years Ago, 17 Women Reproduced for Every One Man|last=Diep|first=Francie|website=Pacific Standard|date=14 June 2017 |language=en|access-date=2019-06-13}} Wilson hypothesised that a possible explanation for this was partially cultural, saying "“Instead of ‘survival of the fittest’ in a biological sense, the accumulation of wealth and power may have increased the reproductive success of a limited number of ‘socially fit’ males and their sons.”{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/18/how-survival-of-the-fittest-became-survival-of-the-richest/|title=How Survival of the Fittest Became Survival of the Richest|last=Sarah Kaplan|date=March 18, 2015|newspaper= The Washington Post}}

The lab uses the Gila monster as a model organism to understand the evolution of sex chromosomes.{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/gila-monster-may-help-reveal-evolution-of-sex-chromosomes/8480196|title=Gila monster may help reveal evolution of sex chromosomes|date=2017-04-28|website=Radio National|language=en-AU|access-date=2019-06-13}}{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/arizonas-adorable-monster/504470/|title=Arizona's Adorable Monster|last=Yong|first=Ed|date=2016-10-18|magazine=The Atlantic|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-13}} As part of her research, she started a crowdfunding campaign which successfully raised over $10,000 to sequence the Gila monster's DNA.{{Cite web|url=https://experiment.com/projects/gila-monster-genomics-conservation-venom-and-treatments-for-type-ii-diabetes|title=Gila monster genomics: conservation, venom, and treatments for Type-II diabetes|website=Experiment - Moving Science Forward|language=en-us|access-date=2019-12-11}} She has referred to the animals as "cool" and "lovable."

Wilson holds one patent for tumor treatments,{{Cite journal|last1=Olney|first1=Kimberly C.|last2=Nyer|first2=David B.|last3=Sayres|first3=Melissa A. Wilson|last4=Haynes|first4=Karmella A.|title=Activation of tumor suppressor genes in breast cancer cells by a synthetic chromatin effector|url=https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/186056v1|journal=bioRxiv|language=en|pages=186056|doi=10.1101/186056|year=2018|volume=12 |issue=1 |pmid=30253781 |doi-access=free|pmc=6156859}} and is the developer of several software packages, including XYalign, for accurately aligning sex chromosomes,{{Citation|title=Identifying, understanding, and correcting technical biases on the sex chromosomes in next-generation sequencing data: WilsonSayresLab/XYalign|date=2019-07-12|url=https://github.com/WilsonSayresLab/XYalign|publisher=Wilson Sayres Lab ARCHIVED Repositories|access-date=2019-11-13}} and TumorSim, for simulating tumor heterogeneity.{{Citation|title=TumorHeterogeneity|date=2019-04-30|url=https://github.com/WilsonSayresLab/TumorHeterogeneity|publisher=Wilson Sayres Lab ARCHIVED Repositories|access-date=2019-11-13}}

Wilson is active in public outreach.{{Cite web|url=https://sols.asu.edu/melissa-wilson|title=Melissa Wilson|website=School of Life Sciences|access-date=2019-11-13}}{{Cite web|url=https://realscientists.wordpress.com/2014/04/06/why-y-evolutionary-biologist-dr-melissa-wilson-sayres-joins-realscientists/|title=Why Y? Evolutionary biologist Dr Melissa Wilson Sayres joins RealScientists|date=2014-04-06|website=RealScientists|language=en|access-date=2019-11-13}} She is a regular on the ASU "Ask a Scientist" podcast and has been interviewed by the New York Times,{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/health/men-y-chromosome.html|title=Secrets of the Y Chromosome|last=Angier|first=Natalie|date=2018-06-11|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-11-13|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine,{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/earliest-mammals-kept-their-cool-descended-testicles-180969476/|title=The Earliest Mammals Kept Their Cool With Descended Testicles|last=Wu|first=Katherine J.|magazine=Smithsonian|language=en|access-date=2019-11-13}} and the Pacific Standard, among others, as an expert on genetics. She has also publicly spoken out against the use of science to justify white supremacy{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/us/white-supremacists-science-genetics.html|title=Geneticists Criticize Use of Science by White Nationalists to Justify 'Racial Purity'|last=Harmon|first=Amy|date=2018-10-19|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-06-13|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} and transphobia,{{Cite magazine|url=https://slate.com/technology/2014/06/national-review-laverne-cox-story-the-science-of-sex-and-transgenderism.html|title=What National Review Doesn't Understand About Sex|last=Keenan|first=Jillian|date=2014-06-04|magazine=Slate Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-12-11}} and against the maltreatment of victims of sexual assault.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/we-asked-105-experts-what-scares-and-inspires-them-most-about-the-future/|title=We Asked 105 Experts What Scares and Inspires Them Most About the Future|last=Ferreira|first=Becky|date=2018-12-05|magazine=Vice|language=en|access-date=2019-11-13}}

• {{Cite journal|last=Wilson Sayres|first=Melissa A|date=2018-02-21|title=Genetic Diversity on the Sex Chromosomes|journal=Genome Biology and Evolution|volume=10|issue=4|pages=1064–1078|doi=10.1093/gbe/evy039|pmid=29635328|pmc=5892150|issn=1759-6653}}
• {{Cite journal|last1=Wilson Sayres|first1=Melissa A.|last2=Lohmueller|first2=Kirk E.|last3=Nielsen|first3=Rasmus|date=2014-01-09|editor-last=Payseur|editor-first=Bret A.|title=Natural Selection Reduced Diversity on Human Y Chromosomes|journal=PLOS Genetics|language=en|volume=10|issue=1|pages=e1004064|doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004064|issn=1553-7404|pmc=3886894|pmid=24415951 |doi-access=free }}
• {{Cite journal|last1=Wilson Sayres|first1=Melissa A.|last2=Makova|first2=Kateryna D.|date=2012-12-04|title=Gene Survival and Death on the Human Y Chromosome|journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution|volume=30|issue=4|pages=781–787|doi=10.1093/molbev/mss267|pmid=23223713|pmc=3603307|issn=1537-1719}}
• {{Cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1=Melissa A.|last2=Makova|first2=Kateryna D.|date=September 2009|title=Genomic Analyses of Sex Chromosome Evolution|journal=Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics|language=en|volume=10|issue=1|pages=333–354|doi=10.1146/annurev-genom-082908-150105|pmid=19630566|issn=1527-8204}}

Source:

• 2019 Awardee, Mary Lyon Award, International Mammalian Genome Society
• 2018 Awardee, SMBE Allan Wilson Junior Award for Independent Research
• 2018 Awardee Zebulon Pearce Distinguished Teaching Award, Arizona State University
• 2010 First Place Award, Genome Research poster competition at CSH: The Biology of Genomes
• 2008 Women In Science and Engineering Outstanding Service Award
• 2006 The Pennsylvania State University NSF GRFP Incentive Award
• 2005 Creighton University Outstanding Mathematician Award

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Category:Arizona State University faculty

Category:Creighton University alumni

Category:Eberly College of Science alumni

Category:21st-century American biologists

Category:American women evolutionary biologists

Category:Computational biologists

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Women computational biologists

Category:American evolutionary biologists