MSI PI Emilie Snell-Rood (associate professor, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior) is studying the development of roadsides as habitats for pollinators. Professor Snell-Rood has overseen projects that studied the pros and cons of using roadsides for this purpose; while the amount of land is quite large, there are challenges such as road salt and car collisions affecting these areas. The studies are providing data for roadside managers working on conservation. A story about this research appears on the website of the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR): Roadside Habitats for Pollinators.
Professor Snell-Rood was an Honorable Mention winner in OVPR’s inaugural Innovation Impact Case Awards earlier this year. She uses MSI resources for research studying how patterns of gene expression in individuals may be molded to specific environments through processes analogous to learning, and is performing RNA-seq to study plasticity in aging mechanisms in monarch butterflies and diverse responses to hormonal regulation of reproduction across butterflies.