Matt Venesky

Headshot of Matthew Venesky
Email: mvenesky@allegheny.edu
Office Phone: (814) 332-2195
Office Building: STEF
Office Room: B115
Box #: 10
Faculty Website

Professional Title/s

Associate Professor, Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities

Faculty Credentials

B.S., Gannon University Ph.D., University of Memphis

Biographical Information

Teaching

Investigative Approaches in Biology, Physiological Ecology

Research

Disease Ecology, Physiological Ecology

Research Interests

The emergence of infectious diseases is one of the largest threats to human and wildlife health. The overall aim of my research is to better understand the consequences of parasite infection on wildlife and the cascading effects that parasites have on species interactions. I take a multidisciplinary approach to studying host-parasite interactions and I integrate molecular, physiological, and ecological approaches in my research. Currently, most of the research in my lab falls under three general themes within disease ecology: (1) understanding the relationship between host physiology and disease risk, (2) identifying host traits that reduce, or amplify, pathogen transmission, and (3) surveying natural populations of aquatic vertebrates for parasites. My laboratory is equipped to study various aquatic pathogens; however, most of my students work with amphibians and the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ("Bd"). Bd is one of the deadliest organisms on the planet and it is linked to amphibian declines and extinctions on every continent except Antarctica.

In addition to studying wildlife diseases, I have expertise in ecology and herpetology (the study of amphibians and reptiles) and I can oversee comp projects that fall under numerous categories in these fields.

Please visit my website for more info about past and current research projects as well as my own research interests: https://sites.google.com/site/veneskylab/

February 2022:
Associate Professor of Biology Matt Venesky and colleagues from John Carroll University recently had a scientific paper published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A, an international and peer-reviewed journal that publishes original research articles (Venesky, MD., J. DeMarchi, C. Hickerson, and CD. Anthony, 2022, “Does the thermal mismatch hypothesis predict disease outcomes in different morphs of a terrestrial salamander?”).

This research is part of an ongoing research program in Venesky’s laboratory, and it presents results of an experiment in which Venesky and colleagues tested whether cool-acclimated hosts are most susceptible to pathogen infection during warm temperature periods and whether warm-acclimated hosts are most susceptible to pathogens during periods of cool temperatures.

More Information

Office Hours

  • Monday: None
  • Tuesday: 9:00 - 11:00 am
  • Wednesday: 2:00 - 3:00 pm
  • Thursday: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
  • Friday: 8:30 - 10:30 am