Mechanisms Underlying Microbial Symbiosis

Originally from small town Alabama, Kerry Oliver completed his BS in Biology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He subsequently moved to the University of Arizona in Tucson where he became interested in insect symbiosis working under the sage guidance of Molly Hunter and Nancy Moran as a PhD student (2005) and postdoc, respectively. He accepted a host-microbe interactions position in Entomology at the University of Georgia in 2009 and established a lab studying facultative, heritable symbionts in insects, with a focus on defensive symbiosis. As noted above, he and co-editor Jake Russell have a long term, fruitful collaboration taking a multidisciplinary approach to studying ecological symbiosis at scales ranging from molecules to communities. Kerry also actively collaborates with Mike Strand at UGA and Tony Ives from the University of Wisconsin. Outside the lab, Kerry has a strong interest in regional native plants and habitat restoration. He lives in Athens in a tripartite symbiosis involving an obligate partner Becky and a conditionally beneficial interaction with the cat Samsquanch. Together they live on 14 acres of hardwood forest where these interests are regularly put into practice.

Jacob Russell is a first-generation college student who got his start at the University of Rochester. Working in a variety of Biology labs, he found a second home in the labs of John Jaenike and Wolfgang Stefan, where he developed interests in symbiosis, insects, and molecular ecology. He earned a BS, and went on to a PhD program, training with Nancy Moran at the University of Arizona, where he began a long-term collaboration with Kerry Oliver focusing on facultative heritable symbionts of the pea aphid. From there, Jake trained with Naomi Pierce at Harvard University, striking up another fruitful, long-term collaboration with Corrie Moreau on gut symbionts of ants. Hired at Drexel University, in 2007, Jake has since established a research lab that studies these two very different types of symbioses in ants vs. aphids. His questions are united by a drive to understand how symbionts shape insect evolution, and how symbioses evolve on very rapid and ancient timescales. Hhis lab employs tools ranging from manipulative live insect experiments, extensive field sampling, phylogenetics, and genomics. When not in the lab, field, office, or classroom, Jake enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys. They play a lot of soccer, read a lot of great books, fervently root for Syracuse sports, and enjoy their time sampling beverages and pastries from the Philadelphia-area’s finest coffee shops.