Dr Amy Slender

Amy has a broad research background and applies her unique experiences and problem solving skills to her support role as research grants officer. This role provides an additional administrative angle to her research experience.

Amy is currently a research affiliate with the College of Science and Engineering.

Previously employed part-time in the Lab of Evolutionary Genetics and Sociality under Mike Gardner in a position funded by an ARC Linkage Grant, her role was to undertake research on the effects of parasite competition and co-occurence of two parapatric tick species on the early stages of genomic divergence of the sleepy lizard. She has co-supervised several honours students to completion and publication whilst managing the DNA research laboratory and samples collected annually from the sleepy lizard survey at Bundey Bore, a project that has undergone more than 42 continuous years of survey.

Amy completed her PhD in 2018 in a project to understand the molecular and ecological factors that effect the persistence of the threatened and endemic bird species, the thick-billed grasswren. Amy showed that two subspecies had made secondary contact and were interbreeding however gene flow in one direction was restricted due to differences in habitat and behaviour. This could impact the systematic classification for subspecies of grasswren in the future.

Amy's previous research experience also includes work on transgenic mouse models to understand the relationship between the trisomy of particular genes and their presentation as Down's Syndrome phenotypes. This work was performed at the National Institute of Medical Research, London (now apart of the Francis Crick Institute). Other research also includes projects on the immunological response of Aboriginal people with the crusted form of scabies at the Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin and the efficacy of Streptoccocal vaccines in adults and children at the Centre of Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, Oxford University. Amy completed her undergraduate degree in Sydney, NSW, where she worked on research projects on wildlife health such as in the Rufus-hare Wallaby and the Koala.