Brock Harpur
Associate Professor
Email: bharpur@purdue.edu
other lab images: https://beemolevo.com/egotrips
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Krispn Given
Senior Apiculture Specialist
Email: kgiven@purdue.edu
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Krispn is a staff member in the Entomology Department responsible for honeybee-related Extension. This includes training hundreds of beekeepers and students a year in the practices of beekeeping and bee breeding. He works very closely with the lab.
Riley Shultz
PhD Student
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Haldane proposed that males are worse at protecting their germline than females. My work investigates the origin and function of mutations in honey bee males. Honey bee males (drones) are hapoloid and express any mutation they inherit or acquire. My work explores how and if drones protect themselves from mutations and if they really are ‘faulty’ as Haldane predicted.
Stephanie Hathaway
PhD Student
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I am untangling the role of the major royal jelly proteins in the honey bee brain. Their role and foci of expression remain elusive. I am exploring the role these genes play and phenotypes associated with them using a combination of biochemical, histological, and neuroethological techniques across model and non-model systems.
Jonathan Nixon
PhD Student
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Izaak Gilchrist
PhD Student
Ravelry: SugarySnail
Website
she/her ; he/him
My research focuses on behavior and communication between honey bee workers and drones. Unlike workers, drones are commonly allowed entry into non-natal colonies despite presenting a significant drain on resources. I'm interested in picking out the factors that affect when and why workers accept foreign drones, why this drifting occurs, and how this affects colony health.
Dylan Ryals
PhD Student
any
My project focuses on honey bee genetics and breeding. In particular, I am studying how genetic diversity plays a role in bee fitness at the individual, colony, and population level—and how we can use that information to improve breeding programs. After starting as a backyard beekeeper, I worked in the commercial pollination and queen rearing industries before becoming a researcher. I plan to continue bee breeding after graduating.
Benjamin Taylor
Postdoctoral Fellow
Twitter: @BenTaylorEvo
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Mulusew Fikere
Postdoctoral Fellow
Twitter: @MulusewFikere
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My project centers around integrating phenotype and genomic information to enhance genomic selection in bees through empirical and simulation datasets. Specifically, my work involves comparing various models for fitting individual and colony-level attributes within the framework of pedigree-based models (PBLUP), genome-based models (GBLUP), and combined pedigree and single-step models (ssGBLUP). As a part of this project, one of our key deliverables will be optimised bee breeding scheme, a pipeline that enables our stakeholders and bee breeders to make informed decisions in selecting the best-performing individuals and colonies using genomic breeding values.
Amos Buschkoetter
Undergraduate Assistant
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Care to join us?
We’re always looking to work with great researchers at any stage of their career. If you’re interested in working with us as an undergraduate, graduate, or post-doc don’t hesitate to contact Dr. Harpur.
Lab Alumni
W. Cameron Jasper - Post-doc (2022-2024)
Gillian Lane - MS Student (2024)
Mathew Dittmann - PhD Student (2020-2023) Presently: USDA Post-doc
Garett Slater - PhD Student (2019-2022) Presently: Assistant Professor Texas A&M
Madeline Carpenter - MS Student (2019-2022) Presently: Bioinformatician with Harvard Medical School
Austin Carey - Research Assistant (2019-2021)
Dayne Hill - Capstone Student (2019-2020)
Savanna Ploessl - Research Assistant (2020-2021)
Anna Donnelly - Research Assistant (2021-2022)