Well hey there!  My name's Dylan, and I'm the Lab Manager and a Neuroscience PhD student here at the Adamo Lab. Right now I am studying the relationship between physiology and behaviour changes in the parasitized Manduca sexta caterpillars, trying to figure out how their wasp parasites suppress the caterpillar's feeding later on.  While I started this by looking at minute details of their feeding behaviour, I've since looked at the metabolite, peptide, and small protein content of the blood of unparasitized caterpillars, and parasitized caterpillars before and after their behaviour changes. I also recently looked at some of the metabolite changes in their nervous system, and I've been attempting to reverse the wasp-induced behaviour changes by injecting various compounds into the caterpillars' brains. Check this space later to see if any of them worked!

As an undergraduate I went to Michigan State University, studying Neuroscience, Political Theory, and Science & Tech Policy. I also gained valuable lab experiences looking at high blood pressure-induced changes to blood vessel receptors, motor planning in the brain, and scorpion venom composition & defensive behaviour with Drs. Ashlee and Matthew Rowe.

I have also interned and worked as both a research manager and in marketing  & sales at Backyard Brains, a company that develops neuroscience educational technologies and materials, which is where I first tried (and succeeded…temporarily) to control scorpion behaviour via Bluetooth.

Nowadays in addition to managing the lab and injecting things into bug brains, I have found a tireless love for teaching, as I teach a new science communication course here at Dalhousie and look forward to even more diverse teaching experiences.

If you want to learn more about my research or other scientific interests of mine, check out my 2018 3 minute thesis finalist talk or my writing through Dalhousie's OpenThink program (https://youtu.be/mc2FddNni4w?si=XXyYM8NlqCxmajXy)!