Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute | Member of the Graduate Faculty | Associate Professor, Entomology | Associate Professor, Molecular and Cellular Biology | Associate Professor, Neuroscience - GIDP | Associate Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Associate Professor, Entomology / Insect Science - GIDP | Associate Professor, Genetics - GIDP
My research interests are rooted in evolutionary biology butmultiple disciplines in biology. At the heart of my research program is the use of flies in the genus Drosophila to understand the evolutionary genomics of host-parasite interactions. Much of my research is focused on endoparasitoid wasps, which are readily observed infecting Drosophila in nature and can be very specialized to particular host species. These wasps lay single eggs in Drosophila larvae and consume flies from the inside out. Flies mount cellular and behavioral defense responses against wasps, but wasps have adaptations for finding host fly larvae, suppressing host cellular immunity, and manipulating host behavior. I use a variety of omics" tools to understand the molecular genetics of fly cellular immunity and wasvirulence, as well as patterns of host immunity and pathogen virulence coevolution across fly and wasphylogenies. For example, I am sequencing a number of parasitic wasgenomes to understand how wasvirulence genes are recruited from the normal wasgene pool and repeatedly replaced by newer gene duplicates. I am also making inroads into the evolution, genetics, and neurobiology of behaviors that flies use to avoid being infected by the wasps and to cure themselves once they are infected, including various self-medication behaviors.