Bio

2024 GES Minor Fellow

Morgan Olmstead is at NC State pursuing her Ph.D. in Entomology with a focus on Genetic Pest Management. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Ohio University and a master’s degree in Biology from the University of New Hampshire, where she researched the microbiome of burying beetles and their parental care behavior. After graduation, she worked for Vanderbilt University at the sequencing core facility and then for the USDA-ARS in the Center for Grain and Animal Health Research working on Stored Product Pests and using Insects as Food and Feed. She joined the Lorenzen lab in 2023 in hopes of working on the genetic engineering of insects for feed as well as studying naturally occurring gene drives in flour beetles.

Publications

• Microbial communities in filth flies collected from dairy and poultry farms for supplemental animal feed , Journal of Economic Entomology (2025)
• Short Exposures to Phosphine Trigger Differential Gene Expression in Phosphine-Susceptible and -Resistant Strains of Tribolium castaneum , Genes (2025)
• Assessing the feasibility, safety, and nutritional quality of using wild-caught pest flies in animal feed , Journal of Economic Entomology (2024)
• Sequencing to identify pathogens in Tenebrio molitor: Implications in insects farmed for food and feed , Frontiers in Insect Science (2023)
• The Genome of the Yellow Mealworm, Tenebrio molitor: It’s Bigger Than You Think , Genes (2023)
• The Genome of Rhyzopertha dominica (Fab.) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae): Adaptation for Success , Genes (2022)