Meet our new Hub Coordinators in Umeå and Alnarp

Sheila Holmes: Hub Coordinator in Umeå

Who are you, and can you tell us a little bit about your background?

“I am a researcher at the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies in Umeå. I have a background in primatology, having managed research programs in the humid forests of Madagascar for around 15 years.” 

“While I came to Umeå for postdoctoral research on the impacts of extreme weather on moose, I was soon drawn back to the incredible biodiversity and massive sustainable development challenges in Madagascar. My research now focuses on synergizing life on land with other sustainable development goals through conservation and restoration activities.” 

What projects are you involved in?

“While two of my research projects recently ended, I am still working with students to publish our research. Though in very different contexts (woodland management, humid forest restoration), both projects aimed to synergize carbon storage goals with biodiversity conservation via ecosystem function, specifically seed dispersal.”  

“We also explored synergies with sustainable management and use of natural resources to support human livelihoods via the provisioning ecosystem services of trees. I am also the Madagascar case study area leader in the Horizon EU BEPREP project, which seeks to understand the role of restoration in zoonotic disease risk.” 

What are your assignments at the platform?

“As hub coordinator, I facilitate One Health activities in Umeå. However, my real goals are to foster a greater understanding and use of the One Health concept at SLU, and to create opportunities for connecting researchers across departments and campuses. The inherent interdisciplinarity of One Health provides great opportunities for connecting research across the diverse fields of study we see at SLU.”  

Visit the profile page of Sheila Holmes

Sharon Hill: Hub Coordinator in Alnarp

Hi Sharon! Who are you, and can you tell us a little about your background?

“I am a docent/associate professor and researcher in chemical ecology of disease vectors at the Department of Plant Protection Biology in Alnarp. I am originally from Canada. I hold an undergraduate degree in biology and English literature from Queen’s University and, following a course in insect physiology, I pursued a Master’s degree in zoology and a doctorate in neuroscience & developmental biology from the University of Toronto. During this time, I worked extensively with mosquitoes, and they ‘got under my skin.’ 

“I came to SLU for a postdoc studying the mechanisms regulating odour-driven host selection by a West Nile virus vectoring mosquito, and found my research home. For the past 19 years, I have been researching blood-feeding insects with colleagues at SLU and around the globe. 

What projects are you involved in for the moment?

“One ongoing line of research is to define the chemosensory ‘space’ occupied by disease vectors. In environments in which vectors are bathed in odours, and taste what they walk on, which chemicals they pay attention to defines their chemosensory ‘space’. We have come quite a long way in identifying the odour space of mosquitoes, and are developing a flow-through system to help in expanding the little we know about their taste space. Attractants, repellents, deterrents and phagostimulants identified from their natural resources can all be used help reduce the interaction of vectors with their hosts. This leads to a second line of research that uses the identified odours to create blends, which mimic attractive resources in their odour space, to lure vectors away from hosts to monitor and control them.” 

“We are collaborating with researchers and stakeholders in sub-Saharan Africa (including Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya and Burkina Faso), and the Americas (including Brazil, Argentina, Canada and the US). In a related line, we have started to investigate tastants unique to blood feeders that can be used as bait to induce vectors to consume otherwise unpalatable control agents. And finally, we are interested in the regulation of chemosensory systems over different time scales from during the lifecycle, to adaptation to climate change and through evolutionary time.” 

What are your assignments at the platform?

“I am new to the position of Alnarp campus coordinator, and look forward to fostering and facilitating interdisciplinary collaborations in One Health. My main motivation to join the platform was to help lift the concept of One Health in researchers’ conversations, to reach those engaged in diverse fields of study, here at SLU and further abroad. I am looking forward to engaging in and facilitating more interactions locally at Alnarp campus during the regular One Health Breakfast Club.” 

What are your main interests within One Health?

“Inspirations and connections can come from the strangest places. 

Did you know that a chicken can protect you from malaria? We didn’t know until we found out that spruce trees are protected from bark beetles by deciduous trees. Ask me about it when you see me, or listen to the story here.

By increasing our contacts with other researchers and sharing our research with one another under the umbrella of One Health, we will inevitably generate new ideas, which I fervently believe will lead us to new solutions.”