PhD project

Project 4 Microsporidia infection and virulence at varying population densities (UK)

Little is known about what future risk Microsporidia pose to insects reared for food and feed. However, past experiences with intensive invertebrate rearing indicate that these parasites, whilst generally benign, can rapidly sweep through populations causing extensive damage.
My work aims to assess the diversity of microsporidia that may affect reared insect and to study the effect of insect host population densities on the transmission and virulence of these parasites. This project takes place at the University of Exeter and the University of Copenhagen.

My research project entitled “Microsporidia infection and virulence at varying population densities” is well fitted in this WP as I will study interaction between microsporidia and their hosts under certain stressors (i.e. host density, and potentially co-infection).