Nicole Gerardo

Last updated
Nicole Marie Gerardo
Education Rice University, University of Texas at Austin
Scientific career
Institutions Emory University
Website https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/gerardolab/
External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg “Farming Ants Reveal Evolution Secrets”, Emory University, May 13, 2009

Nicole M. Gerardo is an entomologist and Professor of Biology and Director of the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (GDBBS) at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. [1] She heads the Gerardo Lab and is a co-leader of the Emory Tibet Science Initiative Research Training Program. [2] [3] In 2021, she became editor of the Annual Review of Entomology . [4] [5] [6]

Contents

Early life and education

Gerardo earned a B.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1997; she received her Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas in 2004. [1]

Career

Gerardo's work focuses on evolutionary ecology, in particular the relationships between both beneficial and harmful microbes and their hosts. [7] For example, aphids are supplied with nutrients by beneficial bacteria and may have lowered immunity to ensure that the relationship continues. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Her whole-genome analyses of insect species have revealed that the pea aphid appears to have lost the Imd pathway, considered a key immune pathway in many species. [13] Her work on the genetics of insect species has also revealed patterns of immune gene evolution of monarch butterflies. [14] Another of her areas of study involves fungal pathogens, fungus-growing ants and their gardens, which are regarded as a model of symbiosis. [15]

Gerardo has published across several journals and in early 2025, her h-index was 36. [16]

Awards and honors

References

  1. 1 2 "Nicole Gerardo". Emory University. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
  2. ↑ "The Gerardo Lab | Evolutionary Ecology of Insect-Microbe Interactions". Emory University. 21 October 2024. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
  3. ↑ "CSU professor teaches biology to monks in India". Department of Biology | Colorado State University. November 21, 2017. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
  4. ↑ Harrison, Jon (2021). "Preface". Annual Review of Entomology. 66: v–vi. doi: 10.1146/annurev-en-66-111120-100001 . PMID   33417817.
  5. ↑ "Editor of the Annual Review of Entomology". Annual Reviews. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  6. ↑ Annual Reviews website, Annual Review of Entomology, retrieved 20 February 2025
  7. ↑ Sinai and Synapses website, Dr Nicola M Gerardo
  8. ↑ "Pesky aphid thrives despite weak defenses". Futurity. 2010-02-23. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  9. ↑ Clark, Carol (April 14, 2008). "April 14, 2008 Following the ant trail". Emory Report. 60 (27). Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  10. ↑ Gavrilles, Beth (October 11, 2012). "New studies reveal connections between animals' microbial communities and behavior". Odum School of Ecology. University of Georgia. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  11. ↑ Kolodny, Oren; Callahan, Benjamin J.; Douglas, Angela E. (28 September 2020). "The role of the microbiome in host evolution". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 375 (1808): 20190588. doi:10.1098/rstb.2019.0588. PMC   7435159 . PMID   32772663.
  12. ↑ Gerardo, Nicole; Hurst, Gregory (December 2017). "Q&A: Friends (but sometimes foes) within: the complex evolutionary ecology of symbioses between host and microbes". BMC Biology. 15 (1): 126. doi: 10.1186/s12915-017-0455-6 . PMC   5744397 . PMID   29282064.
  13. ↑ Palmer, William J.; Jiggins, Francis M. (August 2015). "Comparative Genomics Reveals the Origins and Diversity of Arthropod Immune Systems". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 32 (8): 2111–2129. doi:10.1093/molbev/msv093. PMC   4833078 . PMID   25908671 . Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  14. ↑ Tan, Wen-Hao; Talla, Venkat; Mongue, Andrew J.; de Roode, Jacobus C.; Gerardo, Nicole M.; Walters, James R. (20 July 2021). "Population genomics reveals variable patterns of immune gene evolution in monarch butterflies ( Danaus plexippus )". Molecular Ecology. 30 (18): 4381–4391. Bibcode:2021MolEc..30.4381T. doi: 10.1111/mec.16071 . PMID   34245613. S2CID   235791167.
  15. ↑ Currie, Cameron R. (October 2001). "A Community of Ants, Fungi, and Bacteria: A Multilateral Approach to Studying Symbiosis". Annual Review of Microbiology. 55 (1): 357–380. doi:10.1146/annurev.micro.55.1.357. hdl: 1808/835 . PMID   11544360 . Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  16. ↑ Google Scholar website, Nicole Gerardo, retrieved 20 February 2025
  17. ↑ "Faculty and staff honored for excellence in teaching, mentoring and more". Emory Report. May 12, 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
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