ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´

Heath MacMillan

Associate Professor

• B.Sc., Ph.D. (Western)
• Email Heath MacMillan

Research

Environmental stressors set limits to animal performance (e.g. movement, growth, and reproduction) and thereby limit fitness. These effects of stressors are all mediated through molecular biology, biochemistry, and physiology. If we want to fully understand the impacts of stressors on animal distribution and abundance, or plan for the best ways to mass rear animals, we need to understand the mechanisms of stress tolerance.

In the MacMillan Lab, we study how and why different variables in an animal’s environment, like extreme temperatures, plastic pollution, or diet, set limits to individual performance and survival, and how differences in tolerance to these stressors among individuals, populations, and species arise. To do this, we use several insects as models, like crickets, fruit flies, and mosquitos.

By integrating observations at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, and whole animal levels we build and test conceptual models that can explain performance. Using these models as a backbone for new questions, we study the mechanisms that allow for the wide variation in performance and fitness we observe among individuals, populations, or species in nature.

Heath welcomes inquiries from talented and motivated scientists looking to start a project on insect physiology, biochemistry, and/or molecular biology. See the for details on .

Selected Publications

Andersen, M.K., Robertson, R.M., MacMillan, H.A. (2022) . The Journal of Experimental Biology 225: 244923.

O’Neill, E., Davis, H.E., MacMillan, H.A. (2021) Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 288(1964): 20212121.

Fudlosid, S., Ritchie, M.W. Muzzatti, M.J., Allison, J.E., Provencher, J., and MacMillan, H.A. (2022) Frontiers in Physiology 13: 1-12.

Ritchie, M.W., Dawson, J., MacMillan, H.A. (2021) Current Research in Insect Science.

Carrington, J., Andersen, M.K., Brzezinski, K., MacMillan, H.A. (2020) Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 287: 20201663.

MacMillan, H.A. (2019) . The Journal of Experimental Biology 222: jeb191593.

Overgaard, J.O., MacMillan H.A. (2017) . Annual Review of Physiology 79, 187-208.

MacMillan, H.A., Knee, J.M., Dennis, A.B., Udaka, H., Marshall, K.E., Merritt, T.J.S., Sinclair, B.J. (2016) . Scientific Reports. 6: 28999.