I am a new PhD student and started in February in the Animal Physiology group. I am interested in insect perception and studying the mechanistic side of insect behaviour.
I have received my bachelor’s and master’s degree at Bielefeld University. During my bachelors, I discovered the fascinating world of insect vision, navigation and cognition while working with bumblebees. I extended my experience on insects during my master’s working with ants and conducted my thesis work at the Research Centre on Animal Cognition in Toulouse on lateralization in the visual system of honeybees.
During my PhD under the supervision of Elisa Rigosi, I will investigate the effects of different pesticides and their mixtures in sublethal doses on non-target insect species on a neural and behavioural level.
During my free time, I like to be outside going for a hike or trying to find some interesting animals to observe if the weather allows it. I also love dancing and swimming or just staying home with a good book.
I am looking forward to spending the coming years here in Sweden and getting to know the area, language, and people.
Last week, on Thursday and Friday, it was once again time for BLAM. BLAM is a two-day conference arranged by the PhD students at the department. The first six years, the weather was more than fine. The first spring sun shone from a cloud-free sky. No one thought there could be cold, clouds and rain during BLAM. But… there could be. This year, however, we had both clouds and sunshine. Next year we wish for a sunny BLAM on both days.
Ludovic Orlando described how the horse genome tells us more of the domestication process.
Those were the only clouds during the conference. It started with one of the invited speakers, Ludovic Orlando, who told us about “The genomic history of the domestic horse”. By looking at horse genes he and his team could tell when the horse got domesticated.
Posters, food and good discussions are plenty on BLAM.
Before that, there were some workshops pre-starting the conference. This year the PhD students could learn about data management, publications and academic career, research funding, posters and scientific figures.
Ellen Decaestecker showed us how the microbiome in Daphnia works.
From the other invited speaker, Ellen Decaestecker, we learnt about the microbiome in the daphnia in her talk “Phenotypic mediated switches induced by host genotype x microbiome interactions”. All the other talks were by the PhD students. There were talks about how dung beetles navigate, the needs of soil microbes, manipulation of macrophages, telomere length, carbon in seagrass meadows, dating damselflies, growth in Streptomyces, pheromone receptors, neural cultures, and much more.
Valentin Gillet showed us neurons in the insect central complex.
There were both 12 minutes talks and 3 minute flash talks. Each kind a challenge in different ways. It was very hard for the jury to choose between all the great talks this year. However, the prize for the best long talk went to Valentin Gillet for his talk “A novel navigation circuit in the central complex of the insect brain”.
During 3 minutes we learnt more about ”When soil microbes find a home in the lungs: a tragedy in tow parts” from Katie Laschanzky.
But the jury, which consisted of Ellen Decaester, Olivier Van Aken, Jan-Åke Nilsson, Klas Flärdh and Inger Ekström, could not decide between Katie Laschanzky and Elana Rae Engert. They both got a prize for the best flash talk. Susana Garcia Dominguez got the best poster prize for her cartoon-like poster “Particle deposition and their physiological effects on birds: an experimental approach”.
Elana Rae Engert talked about ”Correlations and constraints forming the metabolic genetic diversity” for 3 minutes.
There were not only talks and posters. A main aim of this conference is also to get together and meet people you don’t talk to every day. Thursday’s social event consisted of a light dinner as well as a pub quiz. On Friday it was time for the 10-year anniversary party. It was actually 13 years since the Department of Biology was created, but the pandemic came in the way of partying.
Interesting posters always get attention. Photo: Anders Örtegren.
I want to thank all the organisers for a wonderful BLAM and I look forward to next year.
All the organisers on one photo. Karla Iveth Aguilera Campos, Sara Winterfeldt, Katie Laschanszky, Susana Garcia Domingues and Nima Mohseni.
Text Inger Ekström, photo Inger Ekström and Anders Örtegren
The Biology doctoral student council (BDR) had meetings on 9 March. Among other things, they discussed BDRs guest lecture, meeting with the head and deputy head of the department, new members and elections to student councils. You find the minutes from the meeting on our Swedish internal website.
Den 8 februari hade institutionsstyrelsen möte. Då diskuterades bland annat bokslutet 2022 och den strategiska planen. Hela protokollet finns på vår internwebb.
My name is Erica Winslott and I started my PhD in April last year (2022) in the new lab of Maja Tarka. In my PhD, I will investigate how selection and genetic variation co-varies in wild populations of the green tortoise beetle Cassida viridis.
Since growing up next to my grandparents that have a farm, and close to the forest, nature has always been a big part of my life. To get the opportunity to work this close to nature, and a bit in the lab, is amazing.
I am originally an ornithologist that investigated physical challenges of migration in my MSc project, and further worked as a research assistant mainly in projects with research that had something to do with birds. During this time, I accidently stumbled over the project of the C. viridis beetles and fell in love with the system and the questions. To investigate the evolutionary potential of wild populations is something that feels really exciting and important for the future of many animal species.
In my spare time I often lay puzzles, do embroidery stitching, spend time out in the environment taking long walks in the forest or I go fishing.
Idag tackade vi av Lennart Okla på hans nästa sista dag vid institutionen. Lennart ville inte ha något storslaget avfirande, men den något utökade centrala administrationen var på plats.
1980 började Lennart jobba på den dåvarande limnologiska institutionen. Sedan dess har mycket hänt, inte minst på IT-fronten även om de flesta fortfarande vill att ”allt bara ska funka”.
Vid frågan på vad han ska hitta på som nybliven pensionär svarade Lennart: – Jag och min fru går i pension samtidigt så på måndag kommer vi att sitta mittemot varandra vid frukostbordet, titta ut genom köksfönstret och fundera på vad vi ska hitta på idag.
Lennart som jobbat med IT sedan lång tid tillbaka, valde att jobba kvar under den mörka årstiden. Nu ser han fram emot att ljuset återkommer och att börja pyssla med alla projekt som finns hemma och i sommarhuset.
Istället för tacktal för presenter och blommar hade Lennart skrivit verser om personer han jobbar med. Dessa framförde han med rörd stämma med många igenkännande skratt från publiken.
Nu går ännu en av institutionens gamla rävar i pension och lämnar ett tomrum efter sig.
Howdy! My name is Natalia and I have joined both the neurobiology group and vision group as a doctoral student under the supervision of Lina Herbertsson. I’m interested in studying how pesticide exposure impacts the foraging decisions of insect pollinators and the implications this may have for plant-pollinator interactions.
I received my bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Texas in San Antonio. Wanting to learn more about the mechanisms that underly sensory and cognitive behaviour in animals, I moved to England and earned a master’s degree in animal behaviour from the University of Exeter. During my masters I started working with honeybees, investigating whether honeybees could detect the presence of polyethylene microplastics (PE-MPs) in floral nectar solutions and if imbibing PE-MPs decreased survival over time. My curiosity to examine if pesticides alter the honeybee’s ability to degrade microplastics has eventually led me to my current position.
My PhD, which will be co-supervised by David O’Carroll and Maj Rundlöf, focuses on the sublethal effects of commonly used pesticides in insects and involves experts in analytical chemistry, genetics, metabolomics, physiology, as well as landscape and behavioral ecotoxicology. I want to find out how neonicotinoids and other insecticides interfere with interactions between non-honeybee pollinators and plants, with a particular interest in floral preference.
During my spare time I like to do outdoor activities such as hiking, kayaking, and camping. I also enjoy making digital art and storyboard animations.
Igår var det tandem talk i Blå hallen. Karin Rengefors och Mike Bok var föreläsarna för dagen. Efter att ha blivit introducerad av Karin inledde Mike med att berätta om ”Seeing the world in a new light: Fan worms travel unique evolutionary paths to photoreception and vision”.
Vi fick lära oss hur Mike använder solfjädermaskar för att studera synens utveckling genom tiderna. Inom familjen Sabellidae har ögon uppstått oberoende av varandra och i olika former flera gånger under evolutionen. Det gör maskarna till bra modelldjur.
Maskens kropp och huvud sitter nere i ett rör. Det är bara dess tentakler som sticker ut ur röret. Därför har ögonen utvecklats på tentaklerna. När något mörkt simmar över masken drar den snabbt in sina tentakler.
Förutom att studera synens evolution har Mike också tittat på hur maskar med olika typer av ögon reagerar på olika stimuli och hur snabbt de reagerar. Undersökningarna visar att maskar med större ögon och bättre skärpa reagerar snabbare. De upptäcker också lättare rörliga föremål. Om maskarna ser på ”riktigt” återstår att undersöka.
Efter en kort introduktion fortsatte Karin att tala om ”The hidden diversity in algal blooms – what does it all mean?”.
Fytoplankton finns på många olika ställen i livets träd. De tar hand om hälften av allt koldioxidupptag och producerar 50% av vårt syre. De finns i botten på näringskedjorna och arter och antal varierar med årstiderna. Vissa av arterna orsakar också algblomning.
Det finns både för- och nackdelar att arbeta med fytoplankton. Några av fördelarna är att de har en snabb generationshastighet, är små och kan odlas i kulturer. Nackdelarna är att det finns skillnader i utseende inom samma art, det är svårt att få dem att fortplanta sig i labbmiljö och de har dessutom väldigt stora genom.
Med hjälp av tekniken RADtag sekventiering har Karin och hennes kollegor tittat på vad det är som gör att det finns så stora skillnader inom en och samma art. De har kommit fram till att en av orsakerna är salthalten i vattnet där fytoplanktonen lever.
De stora skillnaderna mellan olika kloner inom en art gör att de kan utvecklas snabbare om miljön omkring dem ändras. Något Karin studerat genom att se hur kiselalger utvecklade en tolerans mot koppar.
Tack Mike och Karin för nya spännande kunskaper. Alltid lika roligt att lära sig något nytt.
Den 27 januari hade grundutbildningsnämnden möte. Då diskuterades bland annat doktorandernas Open R! sessioner, elproblem in Bkiologihus B, ventilationsbytet, självvärderingar till kvalitetsutvärderingen 2023, ansökningsstatistik för masterprogrammen, infomöte om exjobb och kursanalyser. Du hittar hela protokollet på vår svenska internwebb.
GENECO has held their annual winter meeting at Kulturen, the indoor and open-air museum of historic buildings and exhibitions here in Lund.
GENECO is the graduate research school in genomic ecology, open to all PhD students in the Nordic countries. The students come together to understand genomic techniques and applications – and communicate their research ideas.
The meeting with the theme ”Application of new cool methods”, was opened by Geneco:s director Bengt Hansson who also presented the speakers through the day together with Postdoctoral fellow Emily O’Connor.
Arild Husby was invited from Uppsala University to talk about the role of epigenetics in the seasonal timing of reproduction.
Arild Husby from Uppsala University.
Robin Pranter held the first PhD presentation – Neural crest cell migration and differentiation in wall lizards. Victor Kalbskopf followed with a presentation titled ”Haplotype dynamics within avian malaria infections”.
The meeting was set in a room full of beautiful wall art.
After a nice lunch, where there was time to browse around the museum or just chat with colleagues, Damandeep Kaur held her PhD presentation titled ”Experimental evolution to study the evolution of dosage compensation”.
Fabien Burki, of Uppsala University, talked about he origin of plastids, with insights from the uncultured microbial diversity.
Fabien Burki from Uppsala University with a makeshift pointer.
After a coffee break the Ph D presentations continued with Mingyue Yuan and Vittoria Todisco.
Wall painting meets modern technology at Kulturen.
Finally Emília Santos talked about how she uses CRISPR-CAS to study morphological evolution in cichlid fishes.
The day at Kulturen was summed up with a mingle and drinks, before dinner was served.
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