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Author: igwill

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 Background
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-At the earliest stages of my career (BA at the University of California – Berkeley, USA and postgraduate work), I worked on multiple field eco-evo projects across various global locations – from guppy evolution to ant-plant behavioral ecology. During my Master’s under Dr. Magdalena Götz (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Germany) I studied neural stem cell biology and accumlated a variety of molecular techniques with cells, worms, flies, and mice. I earned my PhD under Dr. Charissa de Bekker (University of Central Florida, USA), focused on the mechanisms of behavioral manipulation by _Ophiocordyceps_ “zombie ant fungus”. I bridged field and lab methods to assay wild samples and perform multiple bioinformatic analyses on zombie ants. The first phase of my current postdoc with Dr. King was at the University of Oxford (UK) and continues here at UBC. My current research seeks to bring together multi-layered disease interactions. Using a tractable lab host (_Caenorhabditis elegans_) and naturally coinfecting parasite species (_Leucobacter_ bacteria), I am exploring the effect of environmental temperature on host-parasite and parasite-parasite interactions. See more in [CV](https://igwill.github.io/cv/)
+I have gone from a field ecology undergraduate to a molecular and cellular biology master's to a PhD that brought together a bit of both and added computational approaches. Throughout, I have been motivated by a love for the natural world -- and over time developed a global prespective on doing science and homed in on timely questions in ecology and evolution. See more in [CV](https://igwill.github.io/cv/) or the interactive [Career map](https://igwill.github.io/map/).
 
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_pages/research.md

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 How do complex disease interactions among hosts and multiple parasites or resident symbionts change across environments? Each of these players and their interactions with each other may respond to environmental shifts. Predicting disease outcomes based only on one interaction, for example between one host and one parasite, may not capture realistic processes that drive variation in disease. To approach these ideas, I have been working with _C. elegans_ nematodes and microbial parasites in the laboratory (UBC, with Dr. Kayla King). We have analyzed host gene expression responses to [novel parasite invasion in hosts carrying a resident microbiome](https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17586) and [hosts benefiting from parasite-parasite competition](https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70124) that reduces net virulence. Taking these naturally coinfection competitor microbes (_Leucobacter_), we have tested [host outcomes across temperature](https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.10.693475). Here, found that strong temperature-driven shifts in host-parasite interactions did not always coincide with similar shifts in parasite-parasite interactions – meaning that coinfections essentially dampened the effects of temperature changes. This work is currently being extended with additional host RNAseq and collaboration with a mathematical modeler.
 
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 PhD Research
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-My PhD research focused on revealing the molecular basis of parasitic behavioral manipulation by a species of _Ophiocordyceps_, or “zombie ant fungus” (UCF, with Dr. Charissa de Bekker). To delve deeply into the biology of this emerging non-traditional study system, we performed the first analyses on the [genome, transcriptome](https://doi.org/10.1534/g3.120.401290), [metabolome](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40065-0), and [in silico-protein-interactome](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40764-8) for this species. Additionally, we statistically analyzed environmental and natural history data from [wild populations of this fungal parasite](https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14224), to connect life history to environmental and ecological factors.
+My PhD research focused on revealing the molecular basis of parasitic behavioral manipulation by a species of _Ophiocordyceps_, or “zombie ant fungus” (UCF, with Dr. Charissa de Bekker). To delve deeply into the biology of this emerging non-traditional study system, we performed the first analyses on the [genome, transcriptome](https://doi.org/10.1534/g3.120.401290), [metabolome](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40065-0), and [in silico-protein-interactome](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40764-8) for this species. <img align="right" src="/images/travels/ophio.jpg" alt="Ophiocordyceps" width="200"> Additionally, we statistically analyzed environmental and natural history data from [wild populations of this fungal parasite](https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14224), to connect life history to environmental and ecological factors.
+<small>Photo: Danny Gooding</small>
 
 MSc Research
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+During my Master’s under Dr. Magdalena Götz (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Germany) my thesis was on neural stem cell biology in mice. I also had a few lab rotations and accumlated a variety of molecular techniques with cells, worms, and flies. I had come expecting to continue my focus on organismal-level ecology, but due to a twist of fate after arriving, I ended up becoming a bit of a lab rat. And lucky that - the molecular and genetic world of biology really opened up for me here. Not to mention meeting my future PhD advisor while she was postdocing at the university.
 
-BA & Postgrad Research
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+BA Studies & Postgrad Work
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+At the earliest stages of my career (BA at the University of California – Berkeley, USA and postgraduate work), I worked on multiple field eco-evo projects across various global locations – from guppy evolution to ant-plant behavioral ecology. My final semester at Berkeley was actually aborad at the Mo'orea Gump Station, where I devised an independent research project studying ectoparasitic snails on sea cucumbers. This experience launched me into wanting to pursue fundamental eco-evo research (and to keep traveling to new places to work!).