Julia Kendrick
Julia Kendrick
About
I am currently a second year Master's student in Dr. Fran Bonier's lab at Queen's University. My research interest lies in exploring the ecological relevance of relationships between individual behavior and physiology. I’m particularly interested in the physiological basis of competitive ability and how parental environment effects offspring behavior and physiology. Understanding the physiological basis for competitive behavior can help aid us in predicting which species will be able to thrive in new environments as the global landscape changes due to environmental fluctuations and urbanization.
My Research
Ecophysiology
My current work under Dr. Fran Bonier at Queen's University aims at determining the proximal mechanisms of microbial competition in the burying beetle Nicrophorus orbicollis. I'm using a combination of fitness measurements and lytic assays to determine how gut microbiome alteration, impacts parental ability to fight microbial competitors during breeding. I also plan to investigate transgenerational effects of gut microbiome alteration.
Molecular Biology
As an undergraduate student at Colorado State University, I completed a research based honors thesis under Dr. Graham Peers. I performed a forward genetic screen using random insertional mutagenesis and a negative selectable marker to identify nuclear genes involved in the regulation of Photosystem I proteins in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. I also worked with Dr. Maxwell Ware using fluorescence based screen to identify Desmodesmus armatus mutants with increased productivity.
Mentorship
I currently serve as the graduate student mentor to three fourth year undergraduate students at Queen's University. I offer guidance and advice to each while they design a project, write a proposal, collect and analyze data, and write up and present their theses.
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Contact Me
Queen's University Department of Biology
116 Barrie St, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 Rm 3441
