tesni houlston

I moved to Aberdeen to join the FABLab in October 2022 as an EASTBIO DTP PhD student and my project investigates the effect of deformed wing virus (DWV) infection on the honeybee brain. DWV has previously been found to impair honeybee foraging and alter learning ability and my work aims to improve our understanding of these behavioural effects. I am researching how DWV infection affects honeybee learning, and brain growth and development, and I aim to identify key learning and memory related genes affected by DWV infection in the brain using next-generation sequencing. 

Before joining the FABLab, I was a member of the DuncanLab at the University of Leeds where I completed my MBiol research project ‘Investigating magnetosense in the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris’. During this project I used behavioural assays to study the effects of different magnetic environments on bumblebee foraging behaviour, as well as using qPCR to investigate the expression of genes of interest.

My broader research interests include animal behaviour and cognition, functional genomics, pollinator health, and behavioural ecology. I am particularly interested in the effects of environmental stressors on animal behaviour, physiology, and gene expression.

Follow me on X/Twitter: @tesni_houlston

Contact me: t.houlston.22@abdn.ac.uk