Kirsten Isabel Verster
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Education
- PhD Candidate, University of California - Berkeley, 2016-present
- B.S. Zoology, University of Florida. 2014.
- B.A. Spanish literature, University of Florida. 2014.
Background
I grew up in southern Miami, Florida, a humid and beautiful place with drowsy alligators and friendly manatees. I sought out a diverse set of research experiences as an undergraduate that have led me all over the United States - I've searched for spiders in the Puerto Rican rainforest, chased angry wasps in Michigan, and grappled with trout in a Wyoming fish hatchery in the pursuit of data. My honors thesis was a systematic revision of the Neotropical butterfly genus Tegosa with Dr. Keith Willmott from the Florida Museum of Natural History.
I am currently studying horizontal gene transfer of cytolethal distending toxin B in drosophilids in Berkeley. I'm particularly interested in the genetic and molecular basis of exciting adaptive phenotypes. Evolution has naturally created solutions to every conceivable problem: extreme cold (ice-binding proteins); extreme heat (heat shock proteins); toxic foods (monarchs sequester cardiac glycosides); inability to see (echolocation). Even extreme environments like Antarctica are abundant with life! I think the budding fields of genomics is a wide-open playground to investigate all the ways nature adapts to problems. Applied researchers can utilize this knowledge to advance human causes.
In my free time, I love dancing salsa and bachata and hanging out with my dog, Pooch (who has been trained to bark, play dead, high five, and jump on command). I also like collecting the rock plants Lithops spp. and air plants Tillandsia spp.
I am currently studying horizontal gene transfer of cytolethal distending toxin B in drosophilids in Berkeley. I'm particularly interested in the genetic and molecular basis of exciting adaptive phenotypes. Evolution has naturally created solutions to every conceivable problem: extreme cold (ice-binding proteins); extreme heat (heat shock proteins); toxic foods (monarchs sequester cardiac glycosides); inability to see (echolocation). Even extreme environments like Antarctica are abundant with life! I think the budding fields of genomics is a wide-open playground to investigate all the ways nature adapts to problems. Applied researchers can utilize this knowledge to advance human causes.
In my free time, I love dancing salsa and bachata and hanging out with my dog, Pooch (who has been trained to bark, play dead, high five, and jump on command). I also like collecting the rock plants Lithops spp. and air plants Tillandsia spp.
Research Interests
Functional genetics, adaptation
For a summary of my current research project, please see the following Youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ChPxINTCg
For a summary of my current research project, please see the following Youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ChPxINTCg
Publications
Verster, K.I., J.H. Wisecaver, R.P. Duncan, M. Karageorgi, A.D. Gloss, E. Armstrong, D.K. Price, A.R. Melon, Z.M. Ali, N.K. Whiteman. Horizontal transfer of bacterial cytolethal distending toxin B genes to insects. 2019. Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Karageorgi, M. K., Groen, S.C., Sumbul, F., Pelaez, J. N., Verster, K. I., Aguilar, J. M., Hastings, A. P., Bernstein, A. P., Bernstein, S. L., Matsunaga, T., Astourian, M., Rico, F. Dobler, S., Agrawal, A. A., Whiteman, N.K. Genome editing retraces the evolution of toxin resistance in the monarch butterfly. Nature.
Gloss, A.D., A.C. Nelson Dittrich, R.T. Lapoint, B. Goldman Huertas, K. I. Verster, J. N. Pelaez, A.D.L. Nelson, J. M. Aguilar, E. E. Armstrong, J. L. M. Charboneau, S. C. Groen, D. H. Hembry, C. J. Ochoa, T. K. O’Connor, S. Prost, H. C. Suzuki, S. Zaaijer, P. D. Nabity, N. K. Whiteman. Evolution of herbivory revealed in a Drosophila genomes. bioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/767160v1.abstract. In preparation.
Karageorgi, M. K., Groen, S.C., Sumbul, F., Pelaez, J. N., Verster, K. I., Aguilar, J. M., Hastings, A. P., Bernstein, A. P., Bernstein, S. L., Matsunaga, T., Astourian, M., Rico, F. Dobler, S., Agrawal, A. A., Whiteman, N.K. Genome editing retraces the evolution of toxin resistance in the monarch butterfly. Nature.
Gloss, A.D., A.C. Nelson Dittrich, R.T. Lapoint, B. Goldman Huertas, K. I. Verster, J. N. Pelaez, A.D.L. Nelson, J. M. Aguilar, E. E. Armstrong, J. L. M. Charboneau, S. C. Groen, D. H. Hembry, C. J. Ochoa, T. K. O’Connor, S. Prost, H. C. Suzuki, S. Zaaijer, P. D. Nabity, N. K. Whiteman. Evolution of herbivory revealed in a Drosophila genomes. bioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/767160v1.abstract. In preparation.
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