Dr. Vicencio Oostra (Principal Investigator)
Vicencio did his PhD in The Netherlands (with Bas Zwaan and Paul Brakefield), and then moved to the UK for a postdoc at the University of Cambridge and then a Marie Curie Fellowship at University College London with Judith Mank. After a postdoc at the University of Helsinki with Marjo Saastamoinen, he returned to the UK as an independent research fellow at the University of Liverpool. Following the award of a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, he moved to Queen Mary University of London to establish his research group.
Postdoctoral researchers
Océane earned her PhD from Queen Mary University of London, focusing on the evolution of cell fate specification in Spiralians. In her current research, she is exploring the link between developmental pathways and adaptation to climate change, with a focus on the evolution of seasonal plasticity in African butterflies.
Madeleine is interested in the evolution of animals, and how different species respond and adapt to new or changing environments. She is particularly interested in understanding the molecular basis of adaptation and evolution, how different layers of the molecular phenotype and genotype interact and the application of integrative multi-OMICs techniques to shed light on evolutionary dynamics.
Madeleine’s current research combines phenotypic, developmental, regulatory and functional genomic approaches to understand the molecular basis of seasonal plasticity in African Bicyclus butterflies. She is especially interested in understanding the regulatory architecture underpinning seasonal plasticity, how this shapes functionally adaptive phenotypes, and whether shifts in environmental predictability influence adaptive potential under climate change.
PhD students
I am Raghavendra Kudinalli Nagaraj (Ragz), a passionate butterfly enthusiast. Being native to western ghats of India my journey with Butterflies began in the year of 2015 with the research on the biodiversity, life cycle and behaviour of butterflies. My current work involves the eco-evo-devo of African butterflies to explore the novel realms of the discipline.
Marcus completed his undergraduate degree in natural sciences at the University of Cambridge, specialising in evolution and ecology.
He joined the lab in April 2023 and is looking to study the community responses of Amazonian butterflies to seasonal climatic changes as well as the specific migratory response of Panacea prola, also known as the “Prola beauty”.
Technicians
Courtney May is responsible for the molecular lab and DNA sequencing
Will Clarence-Smith is responsible for the butterfly and plant rearing