Our lab works at the intersection of two major fields of biology: ecological immunology and symbiosis biology. Ecoimmunology is the study of the causes and consequences of variation in immune response between individuals, species, etc. The field tackles questions ranging from the individual level (genetic sources of immune variation, resource allocation, life-history trade-offs, etc) to broader community levels (e.x how does variation in immunity affect community structure). Symbiosis biology studies intimate partnerships between organisms; how they function on a cellular level, and their ecological benefits. These relationships range from mutualistic (where both partners benefit) to parasitic (where one partner benefits at the expense of another). In many cases, these relationships interact with host immunity.
Research in the Symbiommunity Lab is largely focused on understanding the cellular mechanisms of symbiotic relationships, focusing on the immune system. We are interested in how these relationships are maintained, and what roles host immunity plays in these processes. Furthermore we are interested in how the roles of immunity vary across different types of symbiotic interactions (i.e mutualistic vs. parasitic). Finally, we are interested in the ecological consequences and evolutionary trajectories of these symbiosis-immunity dynamics. Our lab also studies broader questions related to ecological and comparative immunity of cnidarians, and evolutionary immunology of fish.