Yuki Haba, Ph.D.

Bio

Thanks for visiting! I am an evolutionary biologist passionate about understanding how and why diverse behaviors evolve in nature. I'm currently a Leon Levy Scholar in Neuroscience at Columbia University's Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. I work with Ishmail Abdus-Saboor to study genetic and neuronal mechanisms underlying social behaviors in the African naked mole-rat.

I completed my Ph.D. at Princeton University, working with Lindy McBride. I studied the enigmatic evolutionary origin of an urban, human-biting form of the Culex pipiens mosquito, also known as the "London Underground Mosquito." Collaborating with 200+ amazing mosquito researchers worldwide, I sequenced and analyzed 800 mosquito genomes and found that the human-biting mosquito has surprisingly ancient origins.

I earned my Master's at Columbia University where I studied the genomic basis of behavioral variation in beetles with Dustin Rubenstein and Sheng-Feng Shen. I was also fortunate enough to be in the lab of Molly Przeworski, working with Molly Schumer (now at Stanford) and Zack Baker on the evolution of recombination hotspots.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, I graduated from the University of Tokyo for my undergraduate degree. I worked with Nobuyuki Kutsukake at SOKENDAI on the evolution of (eu)sociality in the naked mole-rat and other African rodents.

I spent most of my youth chasing soccer balls, savoring ramen, and playing Nintendo games. Since moving to NYC for grad school, I've found a new passion for beautiful jazz and flavorful coffee.

Publications Highlighted pubs * Corresponding + Equal contribution

10. Haba Y*, PipPop Consortium [show all authors](Aardema ML, Afonso MO, Agramonte NM, Albright J, Alho AM, Almeida APG, Alout H, Alten B, Altinli M, Korba RA, Andreadis SS, Anghel V, Arich S, Arsenault-Benoit A, Atyame C, Aubry F, Avila FW, Ayala D, Azrag RS, Babayan L, Bear A, Becker N, Bega AG, Bejarano S, Ben-Avi I, Benoit JB, Boubidi SC, Bradshaw WE, Bravo-Barriga D, Bueno-Marí R, Bušić N, Čabanová V, Cabeje B, Caputo B, Cardo MV, Carpenter S, Carreton E, Chouaïbou MS, Christian M, Coetzee M, Conner WR, Cornel A, Culverwell CL, Cupina AI, De Wolf K, Deblauwe I, Deegan B, Delacour-Estrella S, della Torre A, Diaz D, Dool SE, dos Anjos VL, Dugassa S, Ebrahimi B, Eisa SYM, Elissa N, Fallatah SAB, Faraji A, Fedorova MV, Ferrill E, Fonseca DM, Foss KA, Foxi C, França CM, Fricker SR, Fritz ML, Frontera E, Fuehrer H-P, Futami K, Ghallab EHS, Girod R, Gordeev MI, Greer D, Gschwind M, Guarido MM, Guat Ney T, Gunay F, Haklay E, Hamad AAE, Hang J, Hardy CM, Hartle JW, Hesson JC, Higa Y, Holzapfel CM, Honnen A-C, Ionica AM, Jones L, Kadriaj P, Kamal HA, Kamdem C, Karagodin DA, Kasai S, Kavran M, Khater EIM, Kiene F, Kim H-C, Kioulos I, Klein A, Klemenčić M, Klobučar A, Knutson E, Koenraadt CJM, Kothera L, Kreienbühl P, Labbé P, Lachmi I, Lambrechts L, Landeka N, Lee CH, Lessard BD, Leycegui I, Lundström JO, Lustigman Y, MacIntyre C, Mackay AJ, Magori K, Maia C, Malcolm CA, Marquez R-JO, Martins D, Masri RA, McDivitt G, McMinn RJ, Medina J, Mellor KS, Mendoza J, Merdić E, Mesler S, Mestre C, Miranda H, Miterpáková M, Montarsi F, Moskaev AV, Mu T, Möhlmann TWR, Namias A, Ng'iru I, Ngangué MF, Novo MT, Orshan L, Oteo JA, Otsuka Y, Panarese R, Paredes-Esquivel C, Paronyan L, Peper ST, Petrić DV, Pilapil K, Pou-Barreto C, Puechmaille SJ, Radespiel U, Rahola N, Raman VK, Redouane H, Reiskind MH, Reissen NM, Rice BL, Robert V, Ruiz-Arrondo I, Salamat R, Salamone A, Sarih M, Satta G, Sawabe K, Schaffner F, Schultz KE, Shaikevich EV, Sharakhov IV, Sharakhova MV, Shatara N, Sibataev AK, Sicard M, Smith E, Smith RC, Smitz N, Soriano N, Spanoudis CG, Stone CM, Studentsky L, Sulesco T, Tantely LM, Thao LK, Tietze N, Tokarz RE, Tsai K-H, Tsuda Y, Turić N, Uhran MR, Unlu I, Van Bortel W, Vardanyan H, Vavassori L, Velo E, Venter M, Vignjević G, Vogels CBF, Volkava T, Vontas J, Ward HM, Wasi Ahmad N, Weill M, West JD, Wheeler SS, White GS, Wipf NC, Wu T-P, Yu K-D, Zimmermann E, Zittra C), Korlević P, McAlister E, Lawniczak MKN, Schumer M, Rose NH, McBride CS*. (2025) Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito. Science 390:eady4515 Science Perspective
Munshi-South J, Evankow A. Urban pests traveled with ancient humans. Selected media coverage
Princeton University | Nature | CNN | The Times | The Independent | New Scientist | ScienceNews

9. Hesson J, Haba Y, McBride CS, …, Makunin A. (2025) A chromosomal reference genome sequence for the northern house mosquito, Culex pipiens, Linnaeus, 1758. Wellcome Open Research 10:107

8. Yang Q, Wang B, Lemey P, … Haba Y, …, Grenfell B. (2024) Synchrony of Bird Migration with Global Dispersal of Avian Influenza Reveals Exposed Bird Orders. Nature Communications 15, 1126

7. Ryazansky SS, Chen C, …, Haba Y, …, Sharakhova MV. (2024) The chromosome-scale genome assembly for the West Nile vector Culex quinquefasciatus uncovers patterns of genome evolution in mosquitoes. BMC Biology 22, 16

6. Arich S, Haba Y, Assaid N, Fritz ML, McBride CS, Weill M, Taki H, Sarih M, Labbé P. (2022) No association between habitat, autogeny, and genetics in Moroccan Culex pipiens populations. Parasites & Vectors 15, 405

5. Haba Y*, McBride CS*. (2022) Origin and status of Culex pipiens mosquito ecotypes. Current Biology 32:237–246

4. Haba Y*, Kutsukake N*. (2019) A multivariate phylogenetic comparative method incorporating a flexible function between discrete and continuous traits. Evolutionary Ecology 33:751

3. Haba Y*+, Herbert R+, Yang L+. (2019) An undescribed relationship between the knobthorn tree (Senegalia nigrescens), ants, and a lac scale insect in South Africa. African Journal of Ecology 2019:00:1-4

2. Haba Y & Kutsukake N. (2018) Social behavior in vertebrates. In Encyclopedia of Zoology, 1st Ed. Tokyo, Japan. Maruzen. (Book chapter in Japanese)

1. Baker Z+, Schumer M+, Haba Y, Holland C, Rosenthal GG, Przeworski M. (2017) Repeated losses of PRDM9-directed recombination despite the conservation of PRDM9 across vertebrates. eLife 6:e24133

CV | Google Scholar | 略歴(JP)