Alexandra C C Wilson

My research focuses on characterizing the mechanisms that metabolically and developmentally integrate hosts and symbionts. Symbioses are mutually beneficial interactions between species. They are so beneficial that they are everywhere - in fact you comprise ten symbiotic bacterial cells for every human cell and those bacteria are important determinants of your phenotype, the ability of your body to heal wounds, and digest food. A compelling challenge in symbiosis research concerns identifying and characterizing the mechanisms of host/symbiont integration. I lead a research group that uses symbiotic partnerships involving one host interacting with one, or at most two, symbionts to identify fundamental design principles in the evolution of symbiosis.

Evolutionary Biology.