Daniel Stadtmauer joined the laboratory of Günter Wagner in 2016 for a senior thesis (Yale College ‘17) and continued into PhD research. He is interested in studying the genetic and developmental changes behind evolutionary innovations. His current research in the lab is focused on the evolution of pregnancy in mammals, at the intersection of evolutionary biology, reproductive biology, and immunobiology. His approach to understanding the complex interactions between fetal and maternal cells is by reconstructing how they were modified over the course of evolution. Questions he aims to address are how uterine gene expression has been uniquely modified to support extended gestation in placental mammals, and in which ways genes that originally evolved as parts of other pathways, such as the immune system, stress, and inflammation, have been incorporated into normal physiology. He is working to apply technology such as single-cell RNA sequencing to study gene expression in the pregnant uterus and to characterize the diversity of cell types within the decidua of placental mammals, the maternal tissue that supports the fetus during extended gestation. He has been awared a KLI writing-up fellowship to complete his PhD thesis.