معرفی
Angela Smilanich is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno, with research focusing on ecological immunology, chemical ecology, and insect-plant-pathogen interactions. Her work examines how phytochemical variation influences insect immunity, disease susceptibility, and multitrophic interactions.
Dr. Smilanich earned her Ph.D. from Tulane University (2008) and completed postdoctoral research at Wesleyan University. Her current research investigates how diet quality mediates immune responses to viral pathogens in caterpillars, spatial patterns of disease transmission, and the consequences of host plant chemistry for insect conservation in changing environments.
Her laboratory employs diverse approaches including metabolomics, gene expression analysis, and field experiments to understand how nutritional quality and plant secondary chemistry shape insect responses to pathogens. Recent work explores viral infection dynamics across landscapes, nutritional immunology of herbivores, and conservation implications of global change for insect populations.
