Profile

I'm interested in certain characteristics of insect societies, particularly reproductive division of labour and defences against pathogens. I'm interested in 1) worker reproduction in order to understand the evolution of the sterile worker caste, 2) the genetic basis of disease resistance, 3) plasticity in the activation of immune responses, 4) the evolutionary forces driving immune gene evolution at the molecular level, 5) social context dependent gene expression changes in social insects, 6) diversity of bee pollinators and its effect on delivery of pollination services, 7) feedback of the chemical composition of bee products on bee health.