Beth Jetson

PhD student at Durham University

email: bethany.k.jetson@durham.ac.uk 

Beth completed her MSci in Conservation Biology and Ecology at the University of Exeter in 2022, where her master’s research focused on the influence of dietary lipids on pathogen susceptibility in Drosophila melanogaster. This work honed her interest on insects and disease and led to her working as a Senior Lab Technician at Oxitec, where she helped in developing mass-rearing strategies for mosquito vector species.

Beth is passionate about using knowledge of mosquito ecology to develop environmentally friendly and sustainable vector control strategies. Motivated by this, Beth was awarded an IAPETUS2 DTP Studentship to pursue her PhD. She is co-supervised by Dr. Andreanna Welch (Durham University), Prof. Heather Ferguson (University of Glasgow), and Dr. Lena Riabinina (Durham University). Her project explores the use of DNA metabarcoding techniques in studying Anopheles larval ecology, with a particular focus on predator-prey interactions and environmental DNA from larval habitats.

With help from collaborators at the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania, Beth hopes to contribute to the development of new molecular methods to study larval ecology and ultimately increase vector control.