Category Archives: Lab News

Read graduate student Israt Jahan’s first first-author publication in the latest edition of Evolution Letters. By mixing experimentally evolved Dictyostelium discoideum lines with their ancestors, the authors found that mixtures produced more spores and slugs still migrated towards light, but … Continue reading →

Shreenidhi successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “The Challenges of Diet Generalism in a Microbial Predator, Dictyostelium discoideum” on November 8th. After a much deserved break, she will next be joining the lab of Dr. Aaron Reinke at the University … Continue reading →

Joan talked about all things birds and Slow Birding to Pennsylvania’s Jenkins Arboretum this week. Listen to her talk on YouTube here!

A new paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B led by former graduate student Dr. Trey Scott investigates the fitness consequences of the D. discoideum–Paraburkholderia symbiosis during host fruiting. Notably, they found that many Paraburkholderia are left behind by … Continue reading →

Third-year graduate student Calum Stephenson recently recieved the 2024 Howard A. Schneiderman fellowship in support of his thesis research into the evolutionary interactions between Dictyostelium discoideum and the three species of symbiotic Paraburkholderia. The award provides one year of full … Continue reading →

Former graduate student Dr. James Medina heads the latest paper from the lab highlighting how cheating can hurt cheaters in D. discoideum. In this system, the word ‘cheater’ often describes cells that are less likely to form stalk cells during … Continue reading →

A new paper headed by former graduate student Dr. Trey Scott employs environmental data across continental scales to highlight how the incidence of symbioses might be shaped by environmental conditions. They find that Dictyostelium discoideum is more likely to exist … Continue reading →

The lab recently recieved wonderful news as PI David Queller was elected to the National Academey of Sciences in April, joining Joan Strassmann amongst the distinguished ranks of the society’s members. This election serves as recognition of Dave’s lifelong career … Continue reading →

Graduate Student P. M. Shreenidhi and lab PI Dave Queller were recently interviewed for The Ampersand about their newest paper in PNAS, titled “Costs of being a diet generalist for the protist predator Dictyostelium discoideum“. Check it out below. Read their … Continue reading →

The Queller-Strassmann lab recently welcomed its newest member as Dr. Heng Liang joined us as a postdoctoral researcher in the Spring. Heng received her PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2023. During her PhD, she studied three genes in … Continue reading →