Lindsey Lab @ UMN

Lab News!

The latest (and hopefully greatest) from our group.

Science, science-adjacent, and life in Minnesota.

Congrats to Sarah and Matt who won awards for their talks at the annual Entomological Society of America Meeting in Portland, Oregon! Regina and Josh also presented their work, but staff and postdocs don’t get presentation awards at ESA (even though we think they are deserving!). 2025/11/12
The lab has a new paper out in PLoS Genetics, featuring contributions from Michael and Megan, and collaboration with labs at Indiana University and the University of Colorado Anschutz. We show that Wolbachia infection helps buffer flies against nutritional stress. 2025/10/15
Welcome to the lab, Anna! Anna is an undergraduate student who will be working with Laura on parthenogenesis in Trichogramma. She is generously supported by the RISE program at UMN.
2025/09/26
Sarah von Gries et al published our report of a second Synopeas species that attacks soybean gall midge.
2025/08/25
Amelia was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor.
2025/08/25
It’s our favorite time of year! The Molecular and Cell Biology of Symbiosis Advanced Research Training Course is in full swing at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Here is team Wolbachia checking out our Leptopilina FiSH preps on the confocal.
2025/08/08
Laura, Matt, and Amelia wrote a review paper focused on the endosymbionts that alter insect sex, which is now published in a special issue of Current Opinion in Insect Science. 2025/08/05
We celebrated (and grieved) the end of Pablo’s time in the lab. He will be moving to Maryland to start a PhD program at UMD focused on his #1 favorite, ants!
2025/07/15
Amos attended journal club and learned about centrosomes.
2025/07/10
Jack and Amelia’s work to sequence the Trichogramma kaykai genome is now published at G3! 2025/06/23
BIG welcome to the lab’s first postdoc: Dr. Joshua Jones! Josh completed a PhD with
Armin Moczek & Irene Newton at Indiana University where he focused on dung beetle microbiomes.
2025/05/27
Laura, Megan, Jack, and Amelia attended the 2025 Wolbachia meeting in Okinawa, Japan. 2025/04/15
Matt presented his PhD thesis proposal to the department — a great “end of the first academic year” success! 2025/04/01
Laura, Pablo, and Sarah attended ESA in Phoenix, AZ to share their research. They were ALL awarded a student competition prize for their presentations! Congratulations! 2024/11/12
Happy Halloween from the current lab group! L -> R, back row: Matt, Amelia, Sarah, Jack, Michael, Graysen, Pablo; front row: Megan, Laura. 2024/10/31
Welcome to new PhD student, Matt Villalta! Matt will be working on the genetics of irreversible asexual reproduction. 2024/09/03
Amelia and Megan just got back from Woods Hole, MA, where they were Course Instructor and TA for “insect week” of the MBL course Molecular and Cell Biology of Symbiosis. 2024/08/14
We had a great night out with friends and colleagues while at the Conference on Beneficial Microbes! 2024/07/23
Lots of folks from the lab attended the Conference on Beneficial Microbes in Madison, WI! Laura gave a talk, and Pablo, Megan, and Michael presented posters. 2024/07/21
PhD student Megan Jones passed her oral exam with flying colors and is now a PhD Candidate! 2024/05/16
We had a super fun time at the UMN Entomology-organized Great Minnsect Show! The Lindsey Lab designed and hosted “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Tiny Insects” and showed off some of the wee parasitoids we work on in the lab. 2024/04/20
We are VERY excited to share PhD Candidate Laura Fricke’s new publication on the identification of the first parthenogenesis-inducing Wolbachia effector proteins!!!! Our work was featured on the GBE cover and you can check out the open access article. 2024/03/26
PhD student Sarah Lisak presented (and performed!) her non-thesis seminar in which she taught us all about insects, music, and the intersection of the two. 2024/03/12
Big welcome new researcher in the lab, Jack Culotta! Jack will be working on parthenogenesis induction. 2024/03/04
Gloria gives an overwhelmingly successful MS thesis defense! Congratulations! 2023/12/04
The lab received a 2-year grant from NIH NIAID to understand how multiple Wolbachia strains can be stably co-transmitted. Megan paved the way here by developing the FiSH protocols that we will use. 2023/11/09
Pablo attended ESA — his first conference — and was awarded a 1st place prize for his presentation on co-infection dynamics during embryo development! 2023/11/07
Gloria attended ESA where she received the ESA P-IE Master’s Student Achievement Award. She ALSO presented a poster on her recently published predation paper and received a 1st place prize! Big congrats!!! 2023/11/06
Megan presented her non-thesis seminar, focused on the fossil history of insects. We all learned a TON and now have new favorite facts about insects and geology. 2023/10/31
We are super excited to have a new researcher join the lab! Michael Gelaw will be working on various aspects of Wolbachia-host interactions. 2023/10/02
Amelia was awarded a 5-year $1.88M MIRA grant from the NIH. This is the lab’s first major grant and we are SO thankful to NIH NIGMS for supporting our work. The funding will support our work focused on understanding the causes and consequences of asexual reproduction. 2023/08/31
Gloria’s paper published is published at Pest Management Science! She developed molecular methods for high-throughout screening of parasitism in soybean gall midge, and screen thousands of field-collected midges. Go Gloria! 2023/08/28
Introducing: Dr. Tina Lozano! “Dr. Tina” defended her PhD thesis in true Minnesota fashion, on the first day of the MN state fair. We are SO proud of her and excited for her future as a Research Investigator at Corteva in Indianapolis. 2023/08/24
Lab party! Koch and Lindsey labs jointly celebrated a suite of successes including defenses, publications, and grants! 2023/08/18
Dr. Gabe Zilnik is visiting! He is a NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow at the USDA-ARS in Washington and Amelia is one of his mentors. He is using genomic and molecular approaches to understand the history of a parasitoid (and its Wolbachia) introduced to control pear psylla. In the lab this week he is learning how to work with Wolbachia and insect cells (pictured above). 2023/08/17
Welcome, Regina! Regina is a new technician that is working with the Koch and Lindsey labs on the soybean gall midge biocontrol projects. 2023/07/05
Laura, Megan, and Amelia attended and presented their research at the 11th Wolbachia Conference — this year held in its original location on the island of Crete. 2023/06/16
Sarah submitted her first manuscript! This is work she did on Polydrusus weevils as a technician in Dr. Aukema’s lab, in collaboration with Amelia and Hailey. 2023/06/05
A VERY exciting day for Laura who was awarded a 3-year pre-doctoral fellowship from USDA NIFA to study sex determination and reproduction in Trichogramma! 2023/06/01
Gloria and Tina celebrated their impending graduations at CFANS commencement. We are so proud! 2023/05/06
New publication from the lab! Gloria discovered some parasitoids in her field collections; turns out it was a new-to-science species! We gifted the wasp the name Synopeas maximum. 2023/05/02
Last lecture day of grad level insect physiology is (apparently, and unbeknownst to Amelia) “dress like Amelia day.” 2023/04/27
Congrats to Gloria and Laura for being awarded departmental scholarships! 2023/04/21
Double congrats to lab “adoptee” Hailey Shanovich: the newly minted Dr. Shanovich defended her dissertation at the end of March and was then awarded the CFANS Borealis Award for Graduate Student Leadership! We are so proud of you! 2023/04/20
Congrats to Megan for being awarded the Sping and Ying-ngoh Lin Fellowship! 2023/04/14
Amelia got to hang out with some of her favorite symbiontologists (and share Wolbachia updates from the lab!) at UW Madison Bacteriology. Many thanks to Dr. Kerri Coon for the invitation and hosting, and for Dr. Mark Mandel and lab for the ice cream! 2023/04/13
A trifecta of exciting things related to soybean gall midge: Gloria, Megan, Amelia, collaborator Dr. Chris Faulk, et al sequenced the soybean gall midge genome. Megan’s artwork was selected for the G3 cover image, and UMN featured this work in a press briefing! 2023/04/01
Sarah gave a superb presentation on her proposed thesis project! 2023/03/28
Beautiful spring midnight in Minnesota: the northern lights were out in full force. 2023/03/24
Welcome to the lab, Pablo! Pablo is a UMN undergraduate student with interests in insects, evolution, and microbiology. He will be working on understanding how Wolbachia localizes in insects. 2023/03/20
Amelia visited long-time friend Dr. Emily McDermott at the University of Arkansas to share Wolbachia updates and learn what the McDermott lab and colleagues are up to! 2023/03/07
Big congrats to Laura who was awarded a UMN interdisciplinary doctoral fellowship! 2023/02/01
New preprint from the lab: using the Drosophila melanogaster model, we show that Wolbachia enhances fly development, especially under nutrient limited conditions. 2023/01/21
Lab holiday party! We had a traditional white elephant gift exchange: Gloria is thrilled that she won a pineapple! 2022/12/16
Amelia visited Fred Hutch to talk about microbe-mediated asexuality. 2022/11/17
The lab attended the Entomology meeting in Vancouver, BC and shared research updates! Congrats to Laura, Sarah, and Tina on their presentation awards! 2022/11/14
Amelia visited Penn State to chat with Wolbachia friends and others at the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics. CIDD mascot Lucy is a star! 2022/10/20
Attending the @EntsocAmerica meeting this November? Consider attending our program symposium on #sciart and #scicomm in #entomology! So many awesome in-person and on-demand speakers on diverse topics! 2022/10/01
It is Minnesota’s favorite time of year: the state fair. We spotted a nested symbiosis! 2022/08/28
Congrats to Laura who passed her prelims today!!! 🎉🎉🎉 We now have lab tradition of wearing the onychophoran as a crown for special occasions. So proud of Laura and all her great progress. 2022/08/10
While at the Beneficial Microbes meeting in Madison, WI, we were gifted some micromalthids. Read about these wacky beetles via the link in the photo. 2022/07/14
Megan shared her latest on coinfecting Wolbachia at the Beneficial Microbes meeting in Madison, WI. 2022/07/12
Laura presented her work on parthenogenesis inducing Wolbachia at the Beneficial Microbes meeting in Madison, WI. 2022/07/12
The lab’s first publication is online! Check out our work on how multiple Wolbachia strains infect a single insect. 2022/06/22
The first crosses with Laura’s new fly stocks are emerging and we have a phenotype! 2022/06/02
Welcome, new MS student Sarah Lisak! Sarah is co-advised by Bob Koch and will be using molecular approaches to quantify biocontrol of soybean gall midge. 2022/06/01
Megan’s FiSH protocol is working! Next step, confocal training. 2022/05/23
Amelia received the Exemplary Faculty Award from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS). 2022/04/21
Laura presented her non-thesis seminar which focused on the use of insects in art across history. We all learned SO much: you can view the recording via the link in the photo. 2022/04/21
Megan presented her thesis proposal on endosymbiont niche partitioning. You can watch the recording via the link in the image. 2022/04/16
Megan and Laura showcase their science-themed art at the UMN SciArt Exhibition. 2022/04/01
The lab’s first preprint is on BioRxiv! Megan is leading the charge on Wolbachia confections. 2022/03/30
Amelia is selected as the Excellence in Early Career award recipient by NCB ESA. 2022/03/22
The lab attends the NCB ESA meeting and Gloria wins an award for her presentation on gall midge predation. 2022/03/22.
Laura wins a free T-shirt. 2022/03/14
First annual lab spring cleaning, featuring Mim’s for lunch, inventory checks, and some elbow grease. 2022/03/10
Welcome, Ashlyn Anderson! Ashlyn joins us from Bemidji State/North Hennepin to work with Laura on PI-Wolbachia. 2022/03/01
Gloria presents her M.S. thesis proposal seminar. 2022/02/15
Amelia was featured on RadioBio. You can listen to the podcast via the link in the image. 2021/12/13
Congrats, Tessa! Tessa defended her M.S. thesis on cryptic species after Amelia stepped in as interim advisor a few months ago. 2021/12/09
Laura presented her PhD thesis proposal seminar. 2021/11/16
Laura and Gloria attended ESA 2021 and gave excellent talks on their research! 2021/11/02
Amelia was selected as the SysEB awardee for this year’s ESA early career standout symposium. 2021/11/01
Finally, a lab group photo! L->R: Megan, Hailey (Aukema Lab adoptee), Laura, Tina (Koch Lab adoptee), Amelia, Gloria. 2021/10/28
Welcome, new grad student Megan Jones! She is joining us with an Excellence in Entomology Fellowship to work on mechanisms of Wolbachia infection. 2021/09/07
Discovery of Edward (Scissorhands). 2021/07/22
Laura generated the lab’s first yeast transformants. 2021/07/17
Amelia receives the Faculty Award for Mentorship in Entomology. 2021/07/13
Welcome Gloria Melotto, new M.S. student in the Koch and Lindsey Labs, working on soybean gall midge biocontrol! 2021/06/30
Our fluorescence microscope is here! 2021/06/14
We’ve been finding an abundance of “smooth Kens” (i.e. males with no genitalia). 2021/05/05
Publication of the DROP database for Drosophila parasitoids is out in Molecular Ecology. 2021/05/29
Laura was awarded Honorable Mention for her GRFP proposal! Huge congrats! 2021/03/23
A lucky sighting of the northern lights. 2021/03/20
Hannah Tubby and Annie Lyra get to be honorary scientists. 2021/02/13
Some of Amelia’s postdoc work is published in mBio. 2021/02/09
The qPCR machine is here! We are ready to run lots of samples. 2021/01/08
The walk-in insect incubator is (finally) up and running! 2020/12/20
The lab’s first PCR! 2020/09/22
We have pipettes! 2020/08/05
Amelia’s review on Wolbachia‘s mechanisms for host interaction is published! 2020/07/16
Welcome, Laura Fricke, PhD student and UMN DOVE Fellow! Laura will tackle Wolbachia-mediated parthenogenesis. 2020/07/10
The lab is born! 2020/07/07