Greg Hurst

Brief CV:

University of Liverpool

Derby Professor of Zoology (2007-current)


University College London

BBSRC David Phillips Fellow (1997-2002)

Lecturer, Reader (2002-2007)


University of Cambridge

BA Zoology (1990)

PhD Evolutionary Genetics (1994)

Fantham Fellow in Parasitology (1993-1997)



Interests:

Animal life is in part made by their interactions with microbes. I'm interested in virtually everything to do with symbiont-host interactions, from mechanism through effects on populations to evolution of the symbiont/host. I am happiest working with insects, but symbionts are present in nearly all taxa, and thus we hope to discover more general truths.

Also interested in the evolutionary ecology of sexually transmitted infections, meiotic drive, and more widely in co-evolutionary dynamics.

I can be made interested in most of evolutionary biology. It is quite an interesting planet out there.

Study systems:

Happily work on different symbionts, and different hosts. Currently, Drosophila and Nasonia are favoured lab rats, bees, butterflies, midges and ladybirds favoured field systems. Bacteria: Arsenophonus, Spiroplasma, Rickettsia, Cardinium and Wolbachia.

Study approaches:

Anything that works considered. We combine functional and genomic analyses with laboratory experiments and analysis of patterns in natural populations. Our population/evolutionary dynamics work is commonly quite 'model-up' - working out what we expect from assumptions and seeing if it happens.

Wider impact work:

Entomophagy as a means of enabling food security; Application of insect science to problems of disease and pest control.


How to find My work:

Contact: