Dr Ben Bellekom
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ben.bellekom@zoo.ox.ac.uk Funded by the NERC Environmental Research doctoral training programme
Supervised by Owen Lewis and Talya Hackett.
Research Interests
I am primarily interested in characterising ecological interactions using DNA metabarcoding. My previous work has included determining endoparasite distributions across UK waterbodies using eDNA and conducting gut content analysis on Vespula vulgaris larvae to examine diet choice. My current research is based in Ghana and aims to examine the variations in insect-host interactions of a wide range of biting Diptera, including the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. To do this I will use metabarcoding to analyse bloodmeals taken from biting diptera to construct large interaction networks.
Publications
- Bellekom, B., Hackett, T.D. and Lewis, O.T. (2021). A network perspective on the vectoring of human disease. Trends in Parasitology 37, 391-400 doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2020.12.001.