Dr. Alexandra Sébastien
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Faculty of Medicine
Dr. Sébastien has a MSc and PhD in Ecology and Genetics, and works primarily with insects. She is interested in the development of bio- and genetic controls of invasive insects, insect behaviour, and citizen science projects that focus on biodiversity. Through her research, she studied multiple species of ants (behaviour, bacteria, and viruses) in multiple countries before working on honey bees in Dr. Leonard Foster’s lab at the University of British Columbia. Over the past two years, she has worked on a large-scale project on honey bees, involving six research groups and over 1,000 hives. The project aims at improving honey bee stocks in Canada by using selective breeding of queens based on proteomic and genetic markers. While currently analyzing the proteomic data generated by this project, she has also started a collaboration with the University of Guelph to control an invasive insect threatening crops in Canada by using RNA interference.