Prof. Jenny Graves
Centre Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics; Head, Animal Genomics and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University; Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne
- a member of the Centre for Reproduction and Genomics Advisory Group
Biographical information
Jenny Graves is an evolutionary geneticist who works on Australian animals, including kangaroos and platypus, devils (Tasmanian) and dragons (lizards).
Her current roles include Centre Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics Head, Animal Genomics and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University and a Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne.
Research interests
Her group uses their distant relationship to humans to discover how genes and chromosomes and regulatory systems evolved, and how they work in all animals including us.
Her laboratory is famous for using this unique perspective to explore the origin, function and fate of human sex genes and chromosomes, and to discover novel human genes.
Qualifications
Jenny received her BSc and MSc from the University of Adelaide and a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley.
Work history
She worked at La Trobe University for many years before moving to the Australian National University, where she heads a large research group in the Research School of Biological Sciences at the Australian National University, and directs the multi-node ARC Centre of Excellence in Kangaroo Genomics.
She has produced three books and >350 research articles.
Honours and awards
Jenny has received a number of honours and awards, including the Centennial Silver medal in 2002 and the Academy’s Macfarlane Burnet medal in 2006. She is a Fellow (and Foreign Secretary) of the Australian Academy of Science, and 2006 L’Oreal-UNESCO Laureate.
Further information
Research School of Biology profile
Arc Centre for Kangaroo Genomics
Latest publications
Grutzner, F., Rens, W., Tsend-Ayush, E., El-Mogharbel, N., O’Brien, P.C.M., Jones, R.C., Ferguson-Smith, M.A. and Graves, J.A.M. (2004). In the platypus a meiotic chain of ten sex chromosomes shares genes with bird Z and mammal X chromosomes. Nature, 432, 913-917.
Graves, J.A.M. (2005). Recycling the Y chromosome. Science, 307, 50-51.
Graves, J.A.M. (2006). Sex chromosome dynamics and Y chromosome degeneration. Cell, 124, 901-914.
Graves, J.A.M., Koina, E. and Sankovic, N. (2006). How the gene content of human sex chromosomes evolved. Current Opinions in Genetics and Development, 16, 219-224.
Quinn, A.E., Georges, A., Sarre, S., Guarino, F., Ezaz, T. and Graves, J.A.M. (2007). Temperature sex reversal implies sex gene dosage in a reptile. Science, 316, 411.
