Priska Flury

My name is Priska, I’m a PhD student in the Biocommunication lab and I work with fluffy bumblebees and plants.

Did you know, when bumblebees are hungry, they bite into plant leaves and make them flower earlier? My research focuses on the mechanistic aspects of this leaf-damaging behavior. Using a multi-omics approach and plant bioassays, we start to understand how bumblebee bites induce flowering on a molecular level. Another aspect of my research investigates the distribution of leaf-damaging among bumblebee species. We could recently show, that this behavior is commonly shown by queens of a wide array of Swiss bumblebee species!

If you don’t find me in the lab, then I’m probably somewhere outside, chasing insects with my camera during the day, or looking at the stars with my telescope at night. I enjoy spending time with my friends, playing RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons or board games, reading (a lot) and, of course, playing with my three fluffy cats.