I am a developmental evolutionary biologist interested in understanding how new anatomical structures originate and diversify in evolution.
I received my Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2018 from Yale University, where I was advised by Dr. Gunter Wagner. In my doctoral research I studied the origin of a novel cell type in the placental mammal lineage — the decidual stromal cells of the uterus. We showed that their origin played a role in the evolution of embryo implantation, a key first step in the extended pregnancy of placental mammals.
Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov’s lab in the Department of Immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine. My current work focuses on understanding the design principles of how tissues are organized and how they evolve. Specifically, I study the evolution of the gut and related organs that are developmentally as well as evolutionarily derived from the gut (such as the liver and the pancreas) in chordates.
On this website you can find my publications and my CV. You can contact me at arun.chavan@yale.edu if you would like to get in touch.