Dr. Kerry Gendreau

PHD FELLOW ALUMNI    |   Global Change Center

VT Alumni May 2022,  Biological Sciences  

Advisor: Dr. Joel McGlothlin

kerryg@vt.edu

Kerry Gendreau defened in May 2022 and is currently work as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Heidelberg University. Kerry Gendreau began her PhD in Joel McGlothlin’s lab in Fall 2017 and studied the evolutionary arms race between toxin harboring newts and their snake and bird predators. 

Kerry earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. For her Master’s thesis she studied the evolution of spider venom toxins under the advisory of Jessica Garb. During this time she also spent a summer volunteering for AmeriCorps on a watershed restoration project in Inyo National forest in California and became passionate about working in the backcountry and engaging in hands on conservation work. After completing a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail, Kerry joined Shihoko Kojima’s lab at Virginia Tech as a research specialist in 2015 and used bioinformatics and molecular tools to study the roles of posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression on circadian rhythms.

Ultimately Kerry would like to use molecular techniques to study adaptation and conservation genetics. While in the Interfaces of Global Change program she worked to connect and collaborate with environmental researchers and experts and to become actively involved in the protection and conservation of biodiversity.

Last updated September 2023.