Giulia Rossi, PhD

Research Interests

As a comparative animal physiologist, I am deeply interested in understanding the innovative solutions that animals use to overcome life’s most extreme challenges. Broadly, my postdoctoral research in Dr. Kenneth Welch Jr.'s lab at the University of Toronto explores the mechanisms that allow hummingbirds to fatten sufficiently before embarking on their fall migration from Canada to Central America. We are investigating whether the physiological machinery that promotes fattening in hummingbirds is similar to that which leads to obesity in humans. My PhD research in Dr. Patricia Wright's lab at the University of Guelph was similarly focused on metabolic physiology. I studied a unique group of fishes that move between aquatic and terrestrial habitats (i.e., amphibious fishes), and investigated how their bodies change to facilitate survival in these two dramatically different environments. I routinely integrate behavioural, physiological, and biochemical approaches so that my lab-based studies will translate into ecological contexts.