Heather Veilleux, PhD

In November 2018 I started a Postdoctoral Fellowship with Dr Chris Glover and Dr Greg Goss at the University of Alberta. My main focus will be to research the physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology of Northern cold adapted species responding to climate change. This will develop our understanding of how iconic Canadian fishes will cope with environmental change and facilitate prediction on how fish distributions may change over time. In particular, I'm interested in how long-term, multi-generational exposure to warming will affect fish, and to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underpinning the potential capacity for acclimation and to provide the molecular tools necessary to identify the species most at risk over the coming century.  

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I completed my PhD (2015) and first Postdocotral Fellowship (2018) at James Cook University (JCU) in Australia. There I worked with a number of fantastic researchers, including Prof. Philip Munday and Dr Jennifer Donelson. We established a collaborative international team of researchers with KAUST, in particular Prof. Timothy Ravasi and Dr Taewoo Ryu. My overarching research evaluated how climate change affected warm-adapted coral reef fishes at the molecular level. Specifically, how gene expression (qRT-PCR, transcriptomics) and epigenetic regulation (WGBS) are affected following short-term, developmental, and transgenerational exposure to increased temperatures.

Last year I embarked on a small eDNA project at JCU with Dr Roger Huerlimann. I designed probes, primers, and artificial DNA and then performed qPCR to determine the presence of two invasive species of crabs and a sea squirt in an attempt to standardise the procedure Australia-wide. I also helped with some student eDNA projects to detect the presence of hammerhead sharks and sawfish.

I have given several guest lectures and have co-ordinated and taught in undergraduate and postgraduate laboratories for a range of courses, such as biochemistry, molecular biology, and molecular ecology. I have also supervised a few postgraduate students.