The main goal of this lab is to understand how nutrition regulates key physiological processes in insects. Thus, its main interest lies in unravelling how the insulin receptor pathway controls reproduction, and also how insects regulate the expression of insulin-like peptides (ILPs), the putative effectors of the signalling pathway. In addition to this, the Nutritional Signals in Insects lab, in collaboration with the Insect Reproduction Lab, studies how interference RNA (RNAi) works in insects, the enzymes involved and their functions and the mechanisms of production and selection of the small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that are generated.

Lab website: Maestro Lab