Group Members
Current group members
Pedro Vale Lecturer in Evolutionary Ecology
Email PedroI have broad interests in the ecology and evolution of infection, immunity and behaviour. After a degree in Biology from the Universidade de Évora, I started my postgraduate studies in Porto in the GABBA PhD program. This allowed me to carry out research towards a PhD at the University Edinburgh, which I received in 2009 for work done on host-parasite interactions in the invertebrate model Daphnia. Following postdoctoral research at CEFE-CNRS in Montpellier (France), in 2013 I joined the Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution (CIIE) as a research fellow and was subsequently awarded a Chancellor's Fellowship (U. Edinburgh) and a Society in Science - Branco Weiss fellowship (ETH Zürich). Since Jan 2020 I am a Lecturer in Evolutionary Ecology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.
Katy is the de facto lab manager for the Ashworth fly groups, and the essential cog without which we will all collapse. Katy received a BSc (Hons) in Zoology and an MSc in Animal Behaviour and Welfare from the University of Edinburgh. Katy plays an important role in managing every aspect of the lab, and also finds time to run her own experiments on behavioural responses to infection.
Darwin Trust PhD student
Arun's PhD is on the innate immune regulation of disease tolerance, with a particular focus on how negative immune regulators contribute to the phenotype we describe as disease tolerance. Arun previously worked on the evolutionary ecology of flour beetle immune function in Deepa Agashe's lab. He is broadly interested in (a) immunity in the context of ageing (b) immune defence strategies; resistance and/or tolerance (c) immunological memory in insects (d) chemical defense strategies (e) stress and genetics of immunity.
Megan Kutzer Leverhulme Trust Postdoctoral fellow
Mitochondrial effects on innate immunity in Drosophila
Phoebe Thornhill
2021 Wellcome Trust PhD programme in Hosts, Pathogens and Global Health -
"Innate immune regulation of pathogen avoidance in Drosophila"
Former lab members (from the most recent)
2019-2020 Research Assistant
Emily did her Hons project in the lab and has continued as an RA working on the role of gut damage repair mechanisms on bacterial shedding and spreading. She is currently doing a Masters in Infection Biology at the University of Glasgow.
Hannah Miller
2021 Genetics Hons Project student
"Genetic variation and co-variation in the response to pathogens"
Lauren Ramage
2021 Immunology Hons Project student -
"Separating host and pathogen drivers of sickness behaivours"
Amy Lussiana
2021 Zoology Hons Project student
"Experimental epidemiology: do fruit flies modify their social interactions to avoid infected conspecifics?"
Ryan Fullarton
2021 Ecology Hons Project student -
"Proximate and ultimate links between aggression and susceptibility to pathogens"
Beth Cornish
2020 Genetics Hons Project student - Mitochondrial effects on the cost of immunity in Drosophila
Sammy McKinlay
2020 Evolutionary Biology Hons Project student - What is the fitness cost of specific components of the immune response?
Rachael Bathgate
2020 Evolutionary Biology Hons Project student - Dissentagling host and pathogen driven sickness behaviours
Florence Fenner
2020 Immunology Hons Project student - Immune priming in Drosophila
2017 - 2019 - Branco Weiss and then Leverhulme Trust Postdoctoral fellow
Tiina was a postdoc in our lab for two years and has a background in ecological genetics, mitochondrial biology, and immunity of Drosophila. Her work uses cybrid lines to explore the the role of mitochondrial genome variation on fly immunty to bacterial, viral and parasitoid infection. She is now a group leader and a Finnish Academy of Sciences Fellow at the University of Tampere.
2017-2019 - Marie Curie Postdoctoral fellow
Vincent DoubletVincent's Marie Curie EU-funded fellowship explored how pathogens evolve when hosts vary in their ability to tolerate infection. Along the way he also worked on natural genetic variation in the propensity to orally acquire and expel bacterial pathogens. He is now an Assitant Professor at Ulm University in Germany.
2015-2019 - NERC E3 DTP PhD Student
Jonti defended his PhD successfully in July 2019. His PhD addressed the genetic, physiological, and behavioural causes of individual variation in pathogen transmission and how they scale up to population disease dynamics. He is now inspiring the next generation of biologists.
2019 - MSc student - Visiting from Université Clermont-Auvergne
Mickael did Master's research project investigating the role of Jak-Stat mediated reponses to infeciton on the ability to flies to tolerate bacterial ifnections.
Zach Bailey
2019 Erasmus MEME Master Student (with Luke McNally)
Zach worked in our lab on host determinants of AMR evolution. He is now a PhD student in Alex Hall's team at ETH Zurich.
Gavin Lockie
2019 Evolutionary Biology Hons Project student - Is agression immune-spressing or immune-enhancing in Drosophila?
Lucy Anderson
2019 Genetics Hons Project student - mtDNA mutation effects on activity and sleep in Drosophila.
Ali Hudson
2018 Evolutionary Biology Honours student
Ali did a fantastic Hons project on Terminal investment strategies following infection are dependent on diet.
2018 MSc student in Biomedical Science
Ryan did his MSc research project in our group on mitochondrial effects on humoral and cellular innate immune responses in Drosophila.
Kyriaki Neophytou
2017 Wellcome Trust PhD program in Hosts, Pathogens and Global Health
Kyriaki dod a short rotation in our group as part of her HPGH PhD program, exploring the mechanistic basis of infection tolerance.
Ruth Larsen
2017 MolBiol Hons. Student
"Within- and between-generational effects of temperature on gut microbiota and disease susceptibility"
2017 Evolutionary Biology Hons. Student
"Genetic variation in social aggregation and pathogen transmission"
2017 Zoology Hons. Student
"The link between immunty and aggression in Drosophila"
2015-2017 Postdoctoral fellow
Vanika was a postdoc in the lab between 2015-2017, having previously done an impressive PhD in the Prasad Lab at IISER Mohali on experiemental evolution of resistance and tolerance in Drosophila. During her time in our group, Vanika's work focused on better ways to measure disease tolerance, and on genetic variation in mortality and sterility tolerance of a viral infection in D. melanogaster. Vanika is currently a postdoc with Brian Lazzaro at Cornell.
2015-2016 Research Technician
Helen brought over 20 years of lab experience to our group and took care of all aspects of lab maintenance, media preparation, H&S paperwork, fly husbandry, and even found time for the odd experiment. Her charm and wit are missed. Helen is currently enjoying a much-deserved retirement.
2015-2016 Research assistant
Emili was broadly interested in biomedical science and public health. Her work in the group addressed the consequences of anti-disease therapies on the epidemiology of infectious disease. Emili carried out a systematic search of published scientific literature to assess the effect of NSAID/antipyretic use on the potential for disease transmission. She has recently finished her BSc degree in Microbiology and is currently a medical lab tech at Q2 Solutions.
2015 Visiting Summer student from Universidade de Lisboa
Joaquim spent 8 weeks in our lab, and developed an interest for behavioural assays. During his stay, Joaquim tested how viral infection affected male-male aggression in D. melanogaster. After a period as a Master's student at the Arendt Lab at the EMBL in Heidelberg, Joaquim is currently a PhD Candidate in the International Neuroscience Doctoral Program at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown.
2015 Zoology Honours student
Charlotte did her undergraduate project research in our lab. She investigated the physiological and behavioural effects of low, sub-lethal levels of viral gut infection in D. melanogaster. Her work showed that even infections that do not kill flies can make them sick by moving less, changing their reproduction and affecting their ability to excrete. Charlotte went on to do an MSc in Conservation at U. Exeter (Cornwall), and is now doing Citizen Science in the middle of the Atlantic on the Açores islands.
2014 Undergraduate summer student
Michael was one our first students, and did some great work testing how viral infection affects fly locomotion and sleep. He also tested the ability of flies to avoid infectious feeding sites when foraging, and found that previously exposed female flies showed lower motivation to pick a food source when presented with a risk of encountering virus. Michael went on to do an MSc in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation at Imperial College, and will soon start a PhD in the NERC London DTP. In the meantime he enjoys shooting birds.
Vasantha Krishnan
2014 Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Vasantha is a microbiologist and during his time in our group he worked on oral baterial infection in D. melanogaster. He found that the route of infection determines whether the endosymbiont Wolbachia can protect flies from infection. Vasantha is currently a postdoc at the CNRS Insitute of Genetics and Develepment in Rennes.