Welcome to the Rokyta Lab website. We are evolutionary biologists in the Florida State University Department of Biological Science who study adaptation in complex protein systems such as viruses and venoms. Although our research interests and study systems are diverse, we generally study the constraints imposed by biophysics, biochemistry, and the genetic architecture of traits under selection on patterns of phenotypic diversity within and between species. We use experimental evolution of viruses and molecular-dynamics simulations of viral capsids to characterize the biophysical mechanisms of adaptation and use population genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics to study the relationship between selection on venoms and intra- and interspecific diversity. We also study the genetics of resistance to venoms in model and natural prey using experimental evolution and genetic mapping approaches. Check out some of the many species we study, the current members of the lab, and some of our ongoing research projects.