Abstract:
Acquiring large-scale -omic information is now relatively simple, and is becoming a common tool in comparative physiology. However, my experience is that incorporating -omics into an organism-focused research program has its challenges. I will use examples from my own lab of using various transcriptomics approaches to address questions associated with the physiology of insect low temperature tolerance. Along the way, we ve learned a lot about experimental design, hypothesis generation and testing, and the advantages and disadvantages of combining multiple platforms. I ll show how we ve overcome -omics-induced existential crises and harnessed these tools to get back to our core interests of figuring out how insects function at temperatures below freezing.

Research field:
Integrative thermal biology of terrestrial invertebrates

Key current research:
Physiological, molecular, and evolutionary mechanisms underlying insect thermal biology
Overwintering and invasion potential of forest and agricultural pests
Impacts of climate change on insects
Environmental impacts on insect immunity and microbiome Overwinter energetics and metabolism