
Phillip Cleves’ Ph.D. research was on determining the genetic changes that drive morphological evolution. He used the emerging model organism, the stickleback fish, to map genetic changes that control skeletal evolution. Using new genetic mapping and reverse genetic tools developed during his Ph.D., Cleves identified regulatory changes in a protein called bone morphogenetic protein 6 that were responsible for an evolved increase in tooth number in stickleback. This work illustrated how molecular changes can generate morphological novelty in vertebrates.
Cleves returned to his passion for coral research in his postdoctoral work in John Pringles’ lab at Stanford University, where he developed new genetic methods to study corals and their response to climate change. He focuses on understanding the intracellular symbiotic relationship corals have with dinoflagellate algae. This nutritional symbiosis is critical for the survival of corals in nutrient-poor tropical waters. However, warming oceans caused by climate change has led to the breakdown of this symbiosis, called coral bleaching, resulting in mass mortality of corals worldwide. Cleves wants to understand the genetic and cellular mechanisms controlling this symbiotic relationship and its breakdown due to stress.
Cleves has developed novel genetic and cellular methods in reef-building corals and a laboratory model organism for coral to address these questions. He applied the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technique in corals on the Great Barrier Reef, which allows for the investigation of gene function in corals for the first time.
Cleves received a B.S. in biology from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley, before his postdoctoral work at Stanford University. Cleves has extensive teaching and mentoring experiences and has received numerous prestigious honors and fellowships, including a national Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship as an undergraduate and a Ph.D. fellowship from the NSF GRFP, and he helped secure several national and international funding awards as a postdoc.