We study evolutionary genetics using Drosophila
Our lab research is rooted in evolutionary biology and genetics, but also spans several other
research areas, including ecology, parasitology, cell biology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics.
We are particularly interested in host-parasite interactions, from the population level down to the
molecular level. Current work is focused on:

• the immune mechanisms fruit flies use against their natural parasitic wasps
• the virulence mechanisms wasps use to circumvent the Drosophila immune system
• how fly immune strategies and wasp virulence strategies coevolve over evolutionary time
• other natural host-parasite interactions in Drosophila

Balint's last day, Atlanta 2013

 

Lab News

• Balint's paper on a novel hemocyte type in flies, nematocytes, is accepted into Parasitology
• Nate accepts an assistant professor position at the University of Warwick
• Todd accepts a visiting professor position at Reed College in Portland, Oregon for academic year 2013-2014
• Susanna wins second best undergrad poster and Balint wins third best grad poster at the 2013 Drosophila Conference
• Zach gets an NSF pre-doc fellowship for his work on the evolution of immune tradeoffs in Drosophila
• Nate's paper on a venom calcium pump blocking calcium bursts in fly blood cells is accepted into PNAS
• Susanna gets accepted into the Biosciences PhD program at Stanford
• Balint gets accepted into the Molecular and Cell Biology PhD program at Dartmouth
• Balint's paper on fly alterations in oviposition behavior after seeing wasps is accepted into Science
• Lindsey takes a job at the USDA Center for Grain and Animal Health Research in Manhattan, KS
• Susanna wins the Genetics Society of America Victoria Finnerty Award for travel to the 2013 Drosophila Conference
• Nate's paper on the glycosylation of lamellocytes during the encapsulation response is accepted into PLoS Pathogens
• Susanna is accepted into the Emory SURE program for the summer of 2012
  
• Balint wins second best poster at the 2012 Drosophila Conference for his work on D. suzukii
• Balint's paper on the potential use of parasitoids in Drosophila suzukii biocontrol is accepted into PLoS One
• Lita gets accepted into the Molecular and Cell Biology PhD program at Dartmouth
• Balint is featured on the Department of Biology homepage
• The alcohol paper gets international press, including a spoof in The Onion (see "press")
• Neil and Balint's paper on fly use of ethanol as anti-wasp medication is accepted into Current Biology
• Erin wins an ARCS Fellowship for her work on the molecular genetics of the candidate anti-wasp protein Lectin-24a
• Thierry's paper on fly behavioral avoidance of wasp-infested oviposition sites is accepted into Biology Letters
• Erin's paper on lectin-24a expression and evolution is accepted into MBE
• Rahul is awarded an independent research grant from the Emory SIRE program
• Balint wins best poster at the Emory undergraduate research symposium
• Neil receives an NSF dissertiation improvement grant for his work on the horizontal transfer of TEs from flies to wasps
• Todd receives an NIH R01 to study the genetics and molecular biology of the fly-wasp system
• Amit and Ethan are both awarded independent research grants from the Emory SIRE program
• Our visiting undergrad from Kenyon College, Mark Luskus, wins “best poster” in Emory’s
  summer undergraduate research program
• Neil wins “best student talk” at the Parasitology Society Meeting in Fort Worth
• Erin gives her first talk at the Evolution Conference in Minneapolis
• Todd’s graduate work on transposon insertions and insecticide resistance is included in
  Evolutionary Analysis (Freeman and Herron, eds.) and other textbooks
• Neil receives a FACES tuition scholarship

 

Last updated 5.7.13