Andrew Helmstetter

Andrew Helmstetter serves as a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) within the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London. He is currently conducting his PhD research under the primary supervision of Prof. Vincent Savolainen at Silwood Park, with co-supervision from Prof. Armand Leroi at Imperial's South Kensington campus and Dr. Tom Van Dooren at Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris.

His research centers on evolutionary biology, with a focus on the molecular basis of adaptive divergence and speciation in annual killifish. Specifically, he investigates life-history variation and species divergence in the rapidly radiating genus Austrolebias, employing genomic and transcriptomic approaches to uncover the genetic architecture of traits like growth rate and life history. His methodology includes hybridization experiments and quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping to analyze desiccation-tolerant eggs and phenotypic divergence in fertile hybrids.

Andrew operates within Prof. Savolainen's laboratory at Silwood Park Campus, maintaining active collaborations across Imperial College London's departments and international institutions including Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris.