Bryan Helm

I am a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Biological Sciences at North Dakota State University. My research addresses questions about the developmental physiology of insects, focusing on the causes and consequences of metamorphosis. My prior work examined larval physiology and causes of metamorphic induction in the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, a well-studied laboratory model. More recently, I have studied metamorphosis in bees (Megachile rotundata, Osmia lignaria, and Apis mellifera) and have expanded my investigation of underlying physiology to encompass the entire transition from larva to adult insect. This work broadly aims to draw mechanistically-explicit links between developmental variation/stress during metamorphosis and phenotypic consequences for adult insects, especially pollinators.

December 2014