Janay A. Fox, PhD

Hope @read-theroom.bsky.social gets there someday. Love Wikipedia 💜

Being cringe in the land of the free 💜😂

The full app is finally out! Please check it out if you're interested and rate and review if you like it 😊

Check out this new project I'm working on! Pre-register now if you are interested in either being a Workin' Grad or hiring one.

Be a part of the chameleon crew! Join our alpha testing: readtheroom.site

Developmental Behavioural Plasticity and DNA Methylation Patterns in Response to Predation Stress in Trinidadian Guppies Early-life experiences can predict the environments experienced later in life, giving individuals an opportunity to develop adaptive behaviour appropriate to a likely future environment. Epigenetic m...

Previous link didn't work so you can access here: doi.org/10.1111/mec....

Special thanks to my collaborators throughout my thesis and all my friends and family who supported me along the way. Very excited to wrap this chapter of my life up and to move onto the next! 🐟🧬👩🏼‍🔬

However, males and females showed different methylation responses suggesting that methylation could be playing a different role between the sexes. Interestingly similar to previous results I found here: doi.org/10.1111/mec....

We found that guppies exposed to alarm cues as juveniles shoaled more as adults and showed epigenetic changes (DNAm) in their brain that persisted into adulthood. We also found potential associations between these epigenetic and behavioural shifts.

I am excited to announce that the last paper from my PhD is now out!

In this paper, we tested how early-life predation stress shapes adult behaviour in Trinidadian guppies and whether DNA methylation in the brain plays a role.

Read all about it here: doi.org/10.1111/mec....

Exciting things coming on RTR!

Rapid Neural DNA Methylation Responses to Predation Stress in Trinidadian Guppies DNA methylation (DNAm) is a well-studied epigenetic mechanism implicated in environmentally induced phenotypes and phenotypic plasticity. However, few studies investigate the timescale of DNAm shifts...

How fast can brains epigenetically respond to predation stress?

We found that brain DNA methylation in guppies can shift within 30 minutes of predator exposure — with different time courses between males and females.

New paper from my PhD now out! 🧠🐟
doi.org/10.1111/mec....

Congratulations to @janayf.bsky.social for winning the 2025 Bruce Cattanach Prize from @gensocuk.bsky.social and for delivering an amazing talk.

I was incredibly grateful to receive recognition for my work and for the opportunity to present at this very exciting conference! Thank you!

Check out this awesome work that just came out!

Working on this cool project with some friends @soudk.bsky.social @chrispyross.bsky.social. Give our account a follow to watch our journey!

Does Motility‐Restricting Fibrosis Influence Dispersal? An Experiment in Nature With Threespine Stickleback Factors that affect dispersal can have important eco-evolutionary implications. Here, we show that an inflammation and tissue repair response—peritoneal fibrosis—does not influence threespine stickle...

How does fibrosis (an inflammation and tissue repair response) affect dispersal? We investigated this question with stickleback in a mark-recapture experiment in Alaska: dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3... @danielbolnick.bsky.social @nataliesteinel.bsky.social @ecoevoevoeco.bsky.social

Taking cues from ecological and evolutionary theories to expand the landscape of disgust | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Behavioural avoidance of parasites in the environment generates what is known as the ‘landscape of disgust’ (analogous to the predator-induced ‘landscape of fear’). Despite the potential for improving...

Congrats to @allegralove.bsky.social & @alexisheckley.bsky.social on their co-first authored paper on the eco and evo basis for the landscape of disgust! Excitingly, this is the first first authored paper from my new(ish) lab! Congrats Allegra and Alexis!

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Please join our discord so we can make it a vibrant community! Dm me if you want to join 😊

Taking cues from ecological and evolutionary theories to expand the landscape of disgust | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Behavioural avoidance of parasites in the environment generates what is known as the ‘landscape of disgust’ (analogous to the predator-induced ‘landscape of fear’). Despite the potential for improving...

🦠🦟Please check out our review on the landscape of disgust (with @qwebber.bsky.social @allegralove.bsky.social ): ow.ly/ZRKm50UlsiO. There is a formatting issue on the website version that we are trying to fix - so, please download the PDF version if you want to give it a read! @royalsociety.org

Can I be added please?

Time for the @bsky.app community to see one of my favorite visualizations of climate change...

"Shifting Distribution of Land Temperature Anomalies" by svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5211/ ⚒️🧪

Orcas have begun wearing salmon hats again – and we may soon know why About 40 years ago, researchers noticed a population of orcas had begun swimming around with dead fish on their heads, and now the craze is back

Retro is in, even in the ocean. The orcas are once again wearing salmon hats

www.newscientist.com/article/2457...

Principles of experimental design for ecology and evolution Here I argue that we do not discuss experimental design, often until it is too late. This editorial seeks to begin a conversation about how and where to replicate appropriately.

I wrote (ranted) on experimental design as I was frustrated as an editor at how little guidance students were getting. I underestimated the interest in the issue: it has been downloaded 10,000+ times! Clearly it’s something we need to be talking about more. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

🦇🌳Please check out our new meta-analysis (with
@danjbecker.bsky.social and Lauren Lock)! Our paper investigates associations between habitat degradation and Neotropical bat virus prevalence and seroprevalence.
@ecography.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/ecog...

Hi, can I please be added! I am a new PhD!

Bruce Cattanach Prize 2025 Dr Janay Fox | Genetics Society The Genetics Society is delighted to announce Dr Janay Fox as the winner of the 2025 Bruce Cattanach Prize. I am honoured and excited to receive the Bruce

Hello Bluesky! I have exciting things to announce for my first post. I successfully defended my thesis last week and have won the Bruce Cattanach Prize for my thesis work on molecular mechanisms of phenotypic plasticity! genetics.org.uk/medals-and-p...