MA Student

My research focuses on the relationship between the early-life environment and allocation of energy during development, and the phenotypic expression of life history traits such as adult body size and age at sexual maturation.  I am interested in investigating the collection of factors which, through epigenetic modifications to the genome, can influence an individual’s development over their life-course and ultimately contribute to creating the remarkable plasticity and phenotypic variation of our species.

Past projects I have been involved in include the use of remote sensing techniques and archival research to analyse a Potter’s Field in London, ON; providing proof of principal for a portable micro-CT scanner; using quantitative RT-PCR to characterize the expression of glucose transporters in a novel extra-embryonic endoderm cell line; and the analysis of artifacts from a Late Thule site located in the Inuvialuit region of north-western Canada.

Keywords: phenotypic plasticity, epigenetics, growth and development, developmental origins of health and disease, life history, bioarchaeology, hunter-gatherer adaptations, energetics, human athletic paleobiology.