research

Graduate research

My current research focuses on salmonid species Oncorhynchus mykiss, also known as steelhead and rainbow trout. Rainbow trout and steelhead both hatch from the same clutches of eggs in freshwater streams, but only steelhead grow up to migrate to the ocean and back. Rainbow trout remain in freshwater for the entire lives. The offspring of both steelhead and rainbow trout can either remain resident rainbow trout, or undergo the physiological and morphological changes known as smoltification to become migrant steelhead trout. Smoltification allows steelhead to transition from inhabiting a freshwater habitat, to surviving in a marine habitat. What exactly determines if an individual smolts is difficult to determine because it seems to result from a combination of many factors: genetics, environment, and an individual’s body condition. I am interested in how a specific chromosomal inversion on chromosome Omy05 impacts life history through development and smoltification and how temperature influences those effects.

My project also looks at how parental life history impacts development and life history of offspring. Using epigenetic markers, we will be able to consider how a parent’s life history influences their offspring. In other words, how does successful parental completion of their own life, through migrating to sea and returning or remaining in freshwater, influence your offspring’s own life histories?

undergraduate research

As an undergraduate, I was a research assistant for Dr. Bill Detrich at Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center. Our work focused on Antarctic fish, including the icefish family. Icefish have undergone a series of unique adaptations, including the loss of red blood cells. Icefish blood is instead a milky color. The Detrich lab uses Antarctic fish as a study system for understanding adaptation at the molecular scale. During my three years working for this lab, I was deployed to Palmer Station for the 2016 Winter (May – October) to rear embryos for developmental studies and to sample adult fish for different gene expression studies.