Madeleine Carruthers
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Postdoctoral Research Associate (Vicencio Oostra group)
Email: m.carruthers@qmul.ac.ukRoom Number: 5.24, G.E. Fogg BuildingWebsite: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madeleine-carruthers-9531871b2/
Profile
Bio: In November 2022, I joined Dr Vicencio Oostra at Queen Mary University of London as senior a post-doctoral researcher, working on an UKRI FLF funded project “Testing how developmental pathways can predict evolutionary adaptation to climate change: an Eco-Devo approach”. Prior to this, I help a post-doctoral position at the University Bristol with Prof. Martin Genner, where I integrated multi-omics datasets – including RNAseq, bisulphite sequencing and whole genome resequencing – to investigate the role of phenotypic plasticity and DNA methylation in the rapid adaptive divergence of African cichlid fishes.
I obtained my PhD in 2018 from the University of Glasgow, which investigated the evolution of adaptive radiations in salmonids, using transcriptomic data.
Project: I am interested in the evolution of animals, and how different species respond and adapt to new or changing environments. I am 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.
My current research combines phenotypic, developmental, regulatory, and functional genomic approaches to understand the molecular basis of seasonal plasticity in African Bicyclus butterflies. I am 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.