Taras K Oleksyk

Taras K Oleksyk
Associate Professor, Ph.D.
367 DH
(248) 370-3359
Lab location: 368 DH
Lab phone: (248) 370-3359
Taras K Oleksyk

OU Genomics Website

Courses: 

BIO 3340  Evolutionary Biology
BIO 4342/5382  Topics in Evolutionary Biology

Research: 
My research interests are in genomics, evolutionary genetics, and comparative genomics.  Specifically, I have been interested in the mechanisms of genome evolution and its implication for adaptation and human disease.  Over the years, I have been involved in several studies looking at the genome diversity of admixture populations and participated in the analysis that identified candidate genes from GWAS and admixture scans. After collaborating with the 1000Genomes Project in Puerto Rico, we organized and published population genomic studies in other parts of the world that have not been addressed in global genome surveys, specifically in populations of Eastern Europe.  This work already demonstrated the potential for novel genetic discoveries in regions that remain understudied, and I am committed to further developing studies for human population genomics that contribute to understanding recent human evolution and personalized medicine. Currently, my lab is advancing research in Ukraine to discover new genetic factors that affect the development and pathology of type 1 diabetes (T1D), which could help predict disease, identify therapies to delay progression, and/or improve metabolic control in those living with T1D.  My other interest is in the evolution and conservation of endangered species. I am involved in studies focusing on genome assembly, variant analysis, and selection scans in wild and domesticated animals. 

Ongoing projects :

European Commission 2SOFT/1.2/48: Partnership for Genomic Research in Ukraine and Romania
Helmsley Foundation: A comprehensive study of T1DM exomes in Ukraine

Selected Publications:

Taras Oleksyk list of publications

Shchubelka, K., Wolfsberger, W. W., Kuliś, K., Garcia, O. A., Sharma, S., Hasynets, Y., . . . Oleksyk, T. K. (2026). A collaborative genomics platform for type 1 diabetes in Eastern and Central Europe. Metabologia. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44357-026-00015-5

Majeske, A. J., Wong, J. M., Farkas Pool, C. A., Eirin-Lopez, J. M., Lopez, J. V., Wolfsberger, W., Schizas, N. V., Díaz-Lameiro, A. M., Castro-Márquez, S. O., Hilkert, K., Mercado Capote, A. J., & Oleksyk, T. K. (2026). A Haplotype-Resolved Genome Assembly of the Long-Spined Sea Urchin Diadema antillarum, a Keystone Caribbean Reef Herbivore. Genes, 17(8), 876. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes17080876

Oleksyk, T. K., Isakova, L., Haiovych, Y., Kurutsa, O., Vronskiy, S., Olifirov, B., Mezhenskyi, O., Horlova, A., Zavadska, D., Vasylieva, V., Crowell, H., Wolfsberger, W., Guigó-Serra, R., Huber, W., Mangul, S., & Kondrashov, F. (in press). Training as infrastructure for biological data science in wartime Ukraine. Nature Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-026-02702-y

Oleksyk, T. K., Wolfsberger, W. W., Chhugani, K., Huang, Y.-N., Pokrytiuk, V., Shchubelka, K., Zelikovsky, A., Pasaniuc, B., Jinga, V., Bucur, O., Edmunds, S. C., Guio, H., Lombard, Z., Henn, B. M., Lobiuc, A., Levitchi, A., Ciorbă, D., Bostan, V., Munteanu, V., … Mangul, S. (2026) Challenges and recommendations in establishing national human diversity genomic projects. Nature Methods https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-026-03131-9

Sharma, G., Munteanu, V., Mansouri Ghiasi, N., Mahanta, U., Banerjee, J., Varma, S., Foschini, L., Ellrott, K., Mutlu, O., Ciorbă, D., Ophoff, R. A., Bostan, V., Moore, J. H., Sousoni, D., Krishnan, A., Lucaci, A. G., Tull, A., Mason, C. E., Dimian, M., Stolovitzky, G., Liberante, F. G., Oleksyk, T. K., & Mangul, S. (2026). Towards a decentralized future for open-science databases. Nature Genetics (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-026-02606-x

Maistrenko, O. M.*, Volkova, N., Mirutenko, V., Wolfsberger, W., Hasynets, Y., Barannik, T., Sydorovskyi, S., Gamulya, Y., Oleksyk, T. K., Serga, S.. (2026). Rebuilding Ukraine’s capacity for fundamental research in evolutionary biology. Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-03002-8

Craig, J. M., Tobin, R. M., Wolfsberger, W., Oleksyk, T. K., Miura, S., Gerhard, G. S., & Kumar, S. (2025). An evolutionary metric for estimating PhyloAges from bulk sequencing of hematopoietic stem cells reveals the tempo of blood aging in cancer and longevity. Journal of Molecular Evolution. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-025-10296-y

Oleksyk, T. K., Koepfli, K.-P., & O’Brien, S. J. (2025). Development, history, and impact of “Recent Advances in Conservation Genetics”, the ConGen Global training course. Journal of Heredity. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esaf060

Shchubelka, K., Wolfsberger, W. W., & Oleksyk, T. K. (2025). Genomics of Type 1 Diabetes in Ukraine Initiative. International Journal of Endocrinology (Ukraine), 21(4), 343-350. https://doi.org/10.22141/2224-0721.21.4.2025.1557

Khizhnyak, O., Oleksyk, O., Wolfsberger, W., Oleksyk, T., Shchubelka, K., & Laver, V. (2025). A case report of Albright hereditary osteodystrophy without intellectual disability due to a de novo GNAS splicing variant. Problems of Endocrine Pathology, 82(1), 95-100. https://doi.org/10.21856/j-PEP.2025.1.11

Castro Márquez, S. O., Tóth, V. R., Kolchanova, S., Wolfsberger, W. W., & Oleksyk, T. K. (2025). A long-read sequencing approach to high-resolution profiling of bacterioplankton diversity in a shallow freshwater lake. Scientific Reports, 15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-96558-7 

Arych, M. I., Shchubelka, K. M., Wolfsberger, W. W., & Oleksyk, T. K. (2024). Does Ukraine need a specific regulation related to the applying of genetic information for risk assessment in insurance? Finance of Ukraine, (2), 85-100. https://doi.org/10.33763/finukr2024.02.085

*Khrystyna Shchubelka, Liudmyla Turova, *Walter Wolfsberger, *Kelly Kalanquin, *Krista Williston, Oleksii Kurutsa, Anastasiia Makovetska, Yaroslava Hasynets, Violeta Mirutenko, Mykhailo Vakerych & Taras K Oleksyk  Genetic determinants of global developmental delay and intellectual disability in Ukrainian children. J Neurodevelop Disord 16, 13 (2024). DOI: 10.1186/s11689-024-09528-x.

*Wolfsberger, W.W., K.  Chhugani, K. *Shchubelka, A. Frolova, Y. Salyha, O. Zlenko, O. V. Ivashchenko, M. Arych, D. Dziuba, A. Parkhomenko, V. Smolanka, S. Reinsone, Z. H. Gümüş, E. Sezgin, A. Diaz-Lameiro, M. Maci, E. Bortz, F. Kondrashov, P. Morton, P.P. Łabaj, V. Romero, J. Hlávka, S. Mangul, and T.K. Oleksyk. (2023). Scientists without Borders:  Lessons from Ukraine. GigaScience 12: giad045  DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giad045

Chhugani, K., Frolova, A., Salyha, Y., Fiscutean, A., Zlenko, A., Reinsone, S., *Wolfsberger, W.W., Ivashchenko, O.V., Maci, M., Dziuba, D., Parkhomenko, A., Bortz, E., Kondrashov, F., Łabaj, P., Romero, V., Hlávka, J., Oleksyk, T.K. and S. Mangul. (2022). Remote opportunities for scholars in Ukraine. Science 378 (6626) 1285-1286. DOI: 10.1126/science.adg0797

Hains T., Pirro, S., O'Neill, K., Valez, J., Speed, N., Clubb, S., Oleksyk, T.K., Bates J., and S. Hackett . (2022). The Complete Genome Sequences of 94 Species of Parrots (Psittaciformes, Aves). Biodiversity Genomes. DOI: 10.56179/001c.40338.

Majeske, A.J., Mercado-Capote, A.J., Komissarov, A., Bogdanova, A., Schizas, N.V., *Castro-Márquez, S.O., Hilkert, K., *Wolfsberger, W.W., and T. K. Oleksyk. (2022). The first complete mitochondrial genome of Diadema antillarum (Diadematoida, Diadematidae). GigaByte 1:gigabyte.73.DOI: 10.46471/gigabyte.73 

Oleksyk, T.K., *Wolfsberger, W.W., *Shchubelka, K., Mangul, S and S.J. O’Brien. (2022). The Pioneer Advantage: Filling the Blank Spots On the Map of Genome Diversity in Europe. GigaScience 11: giac081.  DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giac081

Díaz-Lameiro, A. M., C. I. Villamil, T. Gamble, B. J. Pinto, A. Herrera-Martínez, R. Thomas, J. M. Bernstein, J. E. Titus-McQuillan, S. V. Nielsen, E. Agosto-Torres, A. R. Puente-Rolón, F. J. Bird-Picó, T. K. Oleksyk, J. C. Martínez-Cruzado, and J. D. Daza. (2022). A New Species of Sphaerodactylus (Gekkota: Sphaerodactylidae) from the Northwest Limestone Region of Puerto Rico. Ichthyology & Herpetology 110(3):449–465. DOI: 10.1643/h2020123

Oleksyk, T.K., W.W. Wolfsberger*, A. M. Weber, K. Shchubelka*, O.T. Oleksyk, O. Levchuk, A. Patrus, N. Lazar, S.O. Castro-Marquez*, Y. Hasynets, P. Boldyzhar,  M. Neymet, A. Urbanovych, V. Strakhovska, K. Malyar, S. Chervyakova, O. Podoroha, N. Kovalchuk, J.L. Rodriguez-Flores,  W. Zhou, S. Medley*, F. Battistuzzi, R. Liu, Y. Hou, S, Chen, H. Yang, M. Yeager, M. Dean, R. E. Mills, and V. Smolanka. (2021). Genome Diversity in Ukraine. GigaScience 10(1), giaa159. DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giaa159.

Kolchanova, S., A. Komissarov, S. Kliver, A. Mazo-Vargas, Y. Afanador, J. Velez-Valentín, R. Valentín-de-la-Rosa, S. Castro-Marquez*, I. Rivera-Colon, A.J. Majeske, W.W. Wolfsberger*, T. Hains, A. Corvelo, J.C. Martinez-Cruzado, T.C. Glenn, O. Robinson, K.P. Koepfli, and T.K. Oleksyk. (2021). Molecular phylogeny and evolution of Amazon parrots in the Greater Antilles. Genes (Basel), 12(4), 608. DOI: 10.3390/genes12040608.

Hains T, O'Neill K, Velez J, Speed N, Clubb S, Oleksyk T.K, and Stacy Pirro. (2020). The complete genome sequences of 22 parrot species (Psittaciformes, Aves). F1000Research 9, 1318. DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.25560.1.

Zhernakova DV, Brukhin V, Malov S, T.K. Oleksyk, K.P. Koepfli, A. Zhuk,P. Dobrynin, S. Kliver, N. Cherkasov, G. Tamazian, M. Rotkevich, K. Krasheninnikova, I. Evsyukov, S. Sidorov, A. Gorbunova, E. Chernyaeva, A. Shevchenko, S. Kolchanova, A. Komissarov, S. Simonov, A. Antonik, A. Logachev, D.E. Polev, O.A. Pavlova, A.S. Glotov, V. Ulantsev, E. Noskova, T.K. Davydova, T.M. Sivtseva, S. Limborska, O. Balanovsky, V. Osakovsky, A. Novozhilov, V. Puzyrev, and S.J. O'Brien. (2020). Genome-wide sequence analyses of ethnic populations across Russia. Genomics 112(1), 442-458. DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2019.03.007.

Shchubelka*, K.M., Oleksyk, O. T., Oleksyk, T.K, and Y.S. Hasynets. (2019). Vitamin D in the genetic aspect the role in type 1 diabetes mellitus. ENDOKRYNOLOGIA 24(4), 367-372. DOI: 10.31793/1680-1466.2019.24-4.367.

Kolchanova S, S. Kliver, A. Komissarov, P. Dobrinin, G. Tamazian, K. Grigorev, W.W Wolfsberger,* A.J. Majeske, J. Velez-Valentin, R. Valentin de la Rosa, J.R. Paul-Murphy, DS-M. Guzman, M.H. Court, J.L. Rodriguez-Flores, J.C. Martínez-Cruzado and T.K. Oleksyk. (2019). Genomes of three closely related Caribbean Amazons provide insight for species history and conservation. Genes 10(1), 54. DOI: 10.3390/genes10010054.

Diaz-Zabala, H.J., A.P. Ortiz, L. Garland, K. Jones, C.M. Perez, E. Mora, N. Arroyo, T.K. Oleksyk, M. Echenique, J.L. Matta, M. Dean and J. Dutil. (2018). A recurrent BRCA2 mutation explains the majority of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome cases in Puerto Rico. Cancers (Basel), E419. DOI: 10.3390/cancers10110419.

Grigorev, K., S. Kliver, P. Dobrynin, A. Komissarov, W. Wolfsberger*, K. Krasheninnikova, Y. M Afanador-Hernández, A.L. Brandt, L.A. Paulino, R. Carreras, L.E. Rodríguez, A. Núñez, J.R. Brandt, F. Silva, J.D. Hernández-Martich, A.J. Majeske, A. Antunes, A.L. Roca, S.J. O'Brien, J.C. Martínez-Cruzado and T.K. Oleksyk. (2018). Innovative assembly strategy contributes to the understanding of evolution and conservation genetics of the critically endangered Solenodon paradoxus from the island of Hispaniola. GigaScience 7(6), giy025. DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giy025.

*OU student