ABOUT JUANITA
I am Juanita Rodriguez, a research scientist at CSIRO’s Australian National Insect Collection.
I am interested in uncovering the unknown diversity of wasps in Australia and the chemicals they produce.
I am interested in uncovering the unknown diversity of wasps in Australia and the chemicals they produce.
WHAT DO YOU RESEARCH?I work with a group of wasps commonly known as spider wasps. In the wasp life cycle, the female will hunt a spider, sting and paralyse it and then lay an egg on it. When the egg hatches the larva eats the spider alive, but paralised. The venom from these wasps is a cocktail of hundreds of molecules, some of which could be used to treat conditions like epilepsy and Alzheimer’s.
There are hundreds of undiscovered species of spider wasp in Australia and with them hundreds of compounds are also unknown. I am interested in uncovering the biological, genomic and chemical diversity of such an interesting group. |
HOW DO YOU RESEARCH?This is a photo of me extracting and analysing molecular data from spider wasps.
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WHY DO YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO?
I have been fascinated by insects for a long time. Uncovering their diversity in form, behaviour and chemistry is something I am excited to do every day of my life. I love my work because it is fun, engaging, rewarding and challenging.