Aram Mikaelyan

As part of the urban entomology program at NCSU, Aram Mikaelyan focuses on basic and applied research on wood-destroying pests. His lab is interested in the evolution of symbiotic digestion in wood-feeding insects, and works on developing technologies for the biological control of wood-destroying pests.

We specialize in insect gut microbiomes, and would like to know how microbial communities influence health and development in insects, particularly in wood-destroying pests. On the basic side, we are broadly interested in the mechanisms that contribute to ecological and evolutionary patterns in insect gut microbiomes. On the applied side, we leverage our understanding of insect-microbe interactions to control wood-destroying and other structural pests; we do this through the isolation and optimization of entomopathogens, and through the disruption of insect-microbe mutualisms.