By Petra Dreiser

Jacqueline Sztepanacz, who studies how patterns of genetic variation, the genomic architecture of traits, and selection interact to facilitate or constrain evolution, has been honoured with the 2025 Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty in Science Award of Excellence.

Molly Shoichet, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, created the Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty in Science Award of Excellence in honour of her mother, an honorary degree recipient. By providing teaching-release time for research projects, the award aims to support the recruitment and retention of excellent pre-tenure or early-tenured female professors in any of the physical or life sciences, computer sciences, statistical sciences or mathematics within the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Sztepanacz, a quantitative (statistical) geneticist who took on her faculty position with EEB in 2019, focuses her research around “evolvability,” a concept used across disciplines like developmental biology, genetics, and paleontology, to understand how organisms produce and maintain genetic variation, how that variation determines evolutionary processes, and how it, ultimately, leads to the evolution of key innovations such as, for example, multicellularity.

Sztepanacz’s research aims to test evolutionary theories for how genetic variation is maintained within populations, and specifically how genetic correlations affect evolutionary processes.

Sztepanacz’s project has evolutionary, biomedical, and agricultural relevance for Canada and internationally.

For example, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, and height all have common genetic pathways, meaning that some of the same genetic variations (mutations) that occur here will affect all these traits. Genes that have an influence on more than one trait are called pleiotropic, and the traits are genetically correlated.

Mounting evidence suggests that pleiotropy is common, and Sztepanacz seeks to answer fundamental questions with her work, such as: How many unintended side effects will be caused by deleting an unfavorable gene in a genetically modified organism? How pervasive are disease comorbidities, the simultaneous presence of two or more medical conditions in one individual? How will climate change affect the extinction risk of populations?

“This award is especially timely,” says a grateful Sztepanacz, because over the coming three years, she aims to conduct a series of experiments to uncover the genetic basis and evolvability of traits in spotted-wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii), an invasive fruit fly that infests soft-skinned fruit such as berries, grapes, and other tender crops in Ontario.

“By studying these traits under realistic climate-change scenarios, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the genetic constraints and opportunities that shape adaptation in invasive populations,” Sztepanacz explains. The research will help shed light on how rapidly invasive species can evolve, what limits might exist to their evolvability, and how improved management strategies might leverage such limits.

“Jacqueline Sztepanacz’s research excellence and international recognition demonstrates that she is the best person to tackle these important questions,” affirms EEB chair Joel Levine. ” “The Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty in Science Award of Excellence will allow her to conduct a large and impactful project that has evolutionary, biomedical, and agricultural relevance for Canada and internationally.”