Worcester, Massachusetts has been called “Wormtown”, and although this nickname does not actually refer to C. elegans, there is a thriving community of worm researchers in the city.

The newest worm lab in Worcester is the Mondoux Lab at the College of the Holy Cross, an undergraduate liberal arts college with approximately 2,800 students.  Research in the Mondoux lab is powered by undergraduates and uses the worm as a model to understand the molecular, cellular, and genetic responses to excess glucose, which we term “glucose stress”.

I became interested in the response to glucose stress when I was a postdoc in Mike Krause’s lab at NIH.  In collaboration with John Hanover, we found that when worms are exposed to high glucose, fertility is decreased and reproductive timing is delayed (Mondoux et al., 2011).  In my new lab, we are currently focused on two main projects: (1) characterizing the glucose stress response and trying to understand the mechanism(s) behind these reproductive defects, and (2) identifying genes that are necessary for cells to maintain homeostasis via insulin signaling in response to high glucose.

We welcome visitors and collaborators and have a pipeline of excellent undergrads looking for summer research opportunities and well-trained recent graduates looking for technician positions.