Manyuan Long

Long worked as assistant professor in 1997, associate professor with tenure in 2003, full professor with tenure in 2005, in department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago.[13] Long serves as the Edna K. Papazian Distinguished Service Professor since 2011.

Long proposed and defined the concept of the "evolutionary new genes" or simply called "new genes" in early 1990s,[11][14] different from the conventional belief that genes and their functions are stationary in evolution.[15][16][17][18]

Long studies on the problem of new genes, or the origin of genes, since Long's doctoral research,[14] by molecular biological experiments and computational analyses. To avoid inefficiency brought by multiple evolutionary events in ancient genes, Long chose to study new genes that recently originated in less than one to a few tens of million years,[19] which turned to be a productive approach.[20][11][19]

In 1993, Long published the scientific problem of new gene evolution while researching a gene called Jingwei, the first ever known new gene.[11][21][22][23] Long did postdoctoral research work for four and a half years, investigating the evolution of gene structures while continuing research on Jingwei.

Long and coworkers have investigated molecular mechanisms, rates, and patterns of new gene origination in species ranging from fruit flies[24][25][26] to insects,[27] humans,[28] vertebrates,[29][20] and plants.[30][31][32] These analyses revealed the patterns of gene origination, for example, the rapid evolution of essential gene functions in fruit flies,[33][25] gene traffics between the X chromosomes and autosomes,[20][24][34] the out of testis expression evolution in fruit flies,[35][36] and also in vertebrates [37] and increasing structural complexity of new genes in evolution.[30] Long's major research interests and contributions include the essentiality of new genes,[33][25] de novo gene origination,[30] and new genes resolving sexual conflict.[38][39][40] His research activities also cover evolution of phenotypes and functions of new genes[41][42] and the expression network of new genes.[43][44]

Long and coworkers' findings on new gene evolution[45] were noted as examples in Nature Education library[46] and the textbooks, for example Evolution,[47] Molecular Evolution: a Phylogenetic Approach,[48] and the Princeton Guide to Evolution.[49] One of Long and coworkers' findings, de novo genes are far more commonly than previously thought,[30] was rated as one of "15 studies that challenged medical dogma in 2019" (medscape).[50]

Long and his teams have published 180 research reports, reviews, commentaries and popular science articles on origination and evolution of new genes with their newly derived functions and phenotypes.[51]

Long collaborated with Walter Gilbert to investigate and record important discoveries as molecular biology began to emerge as a field, driven by research in the labs of Walter Gilbert and other scientific pioneers of the era. Long oversaw the editing and publication of the book Walter Gilbert: Selected Works.[52] Long and two scholars (Hongya Gu and Zhonghe Zhou) published another book, entitled Darwin’s Heritage Today,[53] regarding the history and impact of evolutionary biology research defined by Darwin since the publication of his work, On the Origin of Species, in 1859.[54]