Dr. Charles Gawad's lab works at the interface of biotechnology, computational biology, cellular biology, and clinical medicine to develop and apply new tools for characterizing genetic variation across single cells within a tissue with unparalleled sensitivity and accuracy. They are focused on applying these technologies to study cancer clonal evolution while patients are undergoing treatment with the aim of identifying cancer clonotypes that are associated with resistance to specific drugs so as to better understand and predict treatment response. The Gawad lab is also applying these methods to understand how more virulent pathogens emerge from a population of bacteria or viruses with an emphasis on developing a deeper understanding of how antibiotic resistance develops.