Welcome to my personal website, and thank you for your interest in my research.

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Amsterdam Cooperation Lab (VU Amsterdam), working alongside Prof. Daniel Balliet, Dr. Fernando Santos, and Prof. Paul van Lange on the evolution of human cooperation. The main aim of my research is to better understand human cooperation and identify the factors that promote cooperative behavior. To achieve this aim, I develop mathematical and computational models, integrating evolutionary game theory and psychological theories of interdependence.

Selected Publications

M Colnaghi, PAM Van Lange, FP Santos, D Balliet (2023). Adaptations to infer fitness interdependence promote the evolution of cooperation. PNAS, 120(50), e2312242120.

M Colnaghi, N Lane, and A Pomiankowski (2022). Repeat sequences limit the effectiveness of LGT and favoured the evolution of meiotic sex in early eukaryotes. PNAS, 119(35) e2205041119.

RN Palmeira, M Colnaghi, SA Harrison, N Lane, and A Pomiankowski (2022). The limits of metabolic heredity in protocells. Proc Royal Soc B, Nov 9:289(1986).

M Colnaghi, N Lane, and A Pomiankowski (2020). Genome expansion in early eukaryotes drove the transition from lateral gene transfer to meiotic sex. eLife, 9:e58873.