Protein Function

Reptile Taxonomy

Education

• Ph.D., Molecular Embryology, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany, 1997
• M.Sc., Molecular Neurobiology, Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany, 1993

Research Interest

• Biodiversity research
• Herpetology
• Reptile taxonomy
• Taxonomic and other biological databases
• Protein function
• Bioinformatics

Affiliations

• Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR)
• International Society for Biocuration (ISB)
• German Herpetological Society (DGHT)
• Herpetological Association of Africa (HAA)

Courses

• BIOZ 491 — Modern Herpetology
• BIOZ 391 — Functional Genomics

Select Publications

• Castoe, T.A. et al. (2013) The Burmese python genome reveals the molecular basis for extreme adaptation in snakes, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA, 110 (51): 20645-50, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1314475110 
• Chowdhury, S., Fong, S. & Uetz, P. (2025) The protein interactome of Escherichia coli carbohydrate metabolism. Plos One, 20(2): e0315240. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0315240 
• dos Santos Vieira-Alencar, J.P., Liedtke, H.C., Meiri, S., Roll, U., Uetz, P. & Nori, J. (2025) letsRept: An R interface for the Reptile Database. Biodiversity Informatics 19: 120-143, https://doi.org/10.17161/bi.v19i.24329 
• Goodacre, N.; Gerloff, D.L. & Uetz, P. (2013) Protein domains of unknown function (DUFs) are essential in bacteria. mBio 5 (1): e00744-13, doi:10.1128/mBio.00744-13
• Raz, T. et al. (2024) Diversity gradients of terrestrial vertebrates – substantial variations about a common theme. J Zool, 322: 126-140, https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.13130 
• Uetz, P. (2024) Myths about overpopulation. Free Inquiry, April/May 2024, pp. 36-41, http://uetz.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Uetz-2024-overpopulation-no-cover.pdf 
• Uetz P, Lavilla EO, Reyes F & Böhme W (2026) Etymologies of African Reptiles. African Journal of Herpetology 75: 87-99, https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2026.2638420

Google Scholar profile and ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6194-4927

Links

PubMed

VCU News: This VCU professor's extracurricular gig? Wikipedia editor

VCU News: Snake species named after VCU Professor

The Reptile Database