Welcome to the homepage of the SADD LAB at the School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University. We are a group that values inclusion, respect, collaboration, engagement and community while working on the Evolutionary Ecology of Health. If you would like more information or are interested in joining the group, please email Ben Sadd or contact us at X/Twitter (@Saddlab).
Research interests
~What are the consequences of infection? ~How do hosts defend themselves against disease? ~What explains variability in disease outcome between individuals, populations and communities? ~What are ecological and evolutionary factors affecting investment in reproduction versus immune defense? ~What ecological and evolutionary factors shape host and beneficial microbe interactions?
The SADD LAB addresses these and related questions in an Evolutionary Ecology framework, using a range of whole-organism, physiological, genomic and functional genomic approaches. Focuses are on Evolutionary Ecology of Host-Parasite Interactions, Host-Microbiota Interactions, Ecological Immunology, Life History Investment and Native Pollinator Health, but interests are generally broad within Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. More details of research interests can be found here.
