We are a research group within the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh, focusing on the ecology and evolution of infection dynamics in insects.
Welcome! To Priscilla Akyaw, who joins our lab as a postdoc!
Congratulations! Arun Prakash, a former Darwin Trust-funded PhD student, has been awarded the Royal Entomological Society’s Alfred Wallace Award. Arun's PhD thesis on 'Immune Regulation Of Disease Tolerance And Immune Priming In Drosophila' was assessed as the best thesis submitted in 2022!
New paper! Forecasting the effects of epidemics is complicated by a population’s pathogen exposure history. In our paper published in PLOS Biology, we argue for the use of experimental disease ecology to better understand the consequences of variable infection history.
Welcome! To Dhobasheni Newman! Dhobs is our new Research Assistant / Lab manager.
Welcome! To Anna Horiunova, Billur Topbas and Qurratu'Aina Munir who will join the lab on a Genetics Society Summer Studentship, and also to Finn McElrue-Inch who won a College Vacation studentship. Looking forward to work with them over the summer.
New paper! Pedro co-authored a Current BiologyPrimer on Avoidance of Infection highlighting its taxonomic breadth, mechanisms and evolution, and its importance across fields as diverse as public health, conservation, and agriculture.
New paper! Pedro wrote a summary about Providencia rettgerifor Trends in Microbiology's Microbe of the Month.
Funding success! We are so excited and grateful that our proposal "What makes a super-spreader? Genetic control, evolutionary constraints and epidemiological implications of heterogeneity in host infectiousness" has been funded by the BBSRC. Lots of cool science to come over the next few years.
New paper! - We find that mtDNA variation acts as an immunomodulatory factor in adult flies, and that specific mitotypes can provide enhanced protection against bacterial, viral and parasitoid infections.Now published atPLOS Genetics!
