Audrey Parish

PhD Candidate

Audrey Parish is a PhD candidate in Irene Newton’s lab at Indiana University. Audrey studies how the honey bee larval microbiome helps protect larvae from stressors. In her graduate career, Audrey has discovered how the larvae-associated bacterium, Bombella apis, provisions the essential amino acid lysine to larvae via their diet and rescues larval growth under starvation conditions.

As a member of local beekeeping associations, she has surveyed local hobbyist and commercial beekeepers on the stressors their colonies face. These interactions allow Audrey to assume a solutions-based approach in her research, and to discuss microbiome-grounded solutions with local beekeepers. Her long term goal is to leverage the associations between bacteria and animals to improve the safety and sustainability of modern agriculture.