Alfred Roca, Ph.D.

Dr. Alfred Roca conducts genetic studies on wildlife and domesticated animals. He uses DNA from elephants to determine conservation priorities for the species and to establish the geographic origins of confiscated ivory. He also studies “endogenous” retroviruses, which are retroviral copies that have become permanent components of the DNA of humans and animals, and can impact their health.
Roca is a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is also affiliated with the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, the Illinois Natural History Survey, and the School of Information Sciences at Illinois.