Kayla King

Research Interests

Host-pathogen interactions, Evolution, Ecology, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Genomics

Research Focus Teams

Climate Change

Departments

Zoology, Microbiology & Immunology

Contact

Email: kayla.king@ubc.ca

Office Phone: phone: 604–822–0217

Publications

Google Scholar

Lab Website

King lab

Bio
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Kayla King is a Professor and Canada Excellence Research Chair in the Departments of Zoology and Microbiology & Immunology at the University of British Columbia, as well as Professorial Fellow of Evolutionary Ecology in the Department of Biology, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the evolution, ecology, and genomics of host-parasite interactions using a combination of experimental evolution, computational approaches, and collections from the wild. Dr. King received a BSc (2004) from UBC, followed by a MSc (2006) at Concordia University in Montreal, a PhD (2011) at Indiana University, followed by a prestigious Royal Society Newton Post-doctoral Fellowship at the University of Liverpool. She started as an Associate Professor (2013) before being promoted to Full Professor (2019) at Oxford. Dr. King was hired at UBC in 2023. Her honours include the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution Mid-Career Excellence Award (2023), Canadian Society of Zoologists R.A. Wardle Medal (2023), the Zoological Society of London Scientific Medal (2022), the Linnean Society Bicentenary Medal (2020), the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Biology (2018), a European Research Council Starting Grant (2018), and the American Society of Naturalists Early Career Investigator Prize (2013). She is also an elected Fellow of the Linnean Society of London (2023) and Zoological Society of London (2022).

Research Summary
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The King Lab investigates the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of animal-pathogen/parasite interactions. We explore the impact of climate change, biodiversity loss, and other ecological factors on the outcomes of infection now and across time. This work involves a combination of ‘experimental evolution’ in the lab, genomics, comparative analyses, and field collections in North America and Africa.

Ongoing Projects
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TBA