Welcome

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog, just wanted to thank you all for the name suggestions, so drum roll please… I’ve decided to go with ‘Kiwi Roads’! I’ll be updating as I can with pictures and such while in New Zealand, but I thought I’d start off with a post letting you all know why exactly I’m picking up and moving to a different country for 3 years.

In January a professor at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, Dr. Craig Cary, contacted me about a really exciting project they had just gotten funded which included a spot for a PhD student. For this project I will be studying the gray side-gilled sea slug (Pleurobranchaea maculata) - native to NZ. These slugs have recently been found on some of the north island beaches containing tetrodotoxin (TTX). This is the first detection of TTX in NZ, making it a bit alarming. TTX is a neurotoxin that is found in a number of organisms both marine and terrestrial - but is best known for being the active toxin in puffer fish and the blue ringed octopus. The strange thing is how the same exact toxin is found across so many different environments and organisms - this has led many researchers to consider associated bacteria as the actual source of the toxin. This is what I'll be looking for in P. maculata - we have a number of really cool research tools that will enable us to hopefully detect and isolate the bacteria and possibly sequence it. Anyways – that’s it in a nutshell - hopefully didn't get too detailed there!

            As for when I am leaving, which has been everyone’s question, I unfortunately don’t have a date yet. I am still in the process of getting my visa, but we’re hoping I’ll be able to get out there by late April. As soon as I know a date, I will make sure to spread the word! 

- L