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Dr. Pepijn Luijckx

Assistant Professor in Parasite Biology (Zoology)
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Pepijn Luijckx

Assistant Professor in Parasite Biology (Zoology)

 luijckxp@tcd.ie

 


  Animal Parasitic Diseases   Bacterial pathogenicity   Biology   CLIMATE CHANGE   COEVOLUTION   DISEASE   Epidemiology   Evolutionary genetics   Freshwater ecology   GENETIC   HOST   Infectious diseases   Molecular population genetics   Parasitology   Public health   SEX   Vaccines
Details Date
Review Editor Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 29/08/2022
External examiner PhD defense Stirling University 20/09/2024
Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
Dutch Fluent Fluent Fluent
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
Details Date From Date To
British Ecological Society 2019
Irish Ecological Association 2018
European Society for Evolutionary Biology 2008
Madeline Jarvis-Cross, Devin Kirk, Leila Krichel, Pepijn Luijckx, Péter K. Molnár, Martin Krkošek, Early warning signals do not predict a warming induced experimental epidemic, PLOS Global Public Health, 5, (10), 2025, Notes: [https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0005142], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  URL
Niamh McCartan, Floriane O"Keeffe, Guoyuan Zhang, Pepijn Luijckx, Impact of heatwave amplitude, duration, and timing on parasite fitness at different baseline temperatures, PLOS Climate, 4, (6), 2025, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  URL
Andrea Michelle Hernandez Villatoro, Jeremy J Piggott, Adam P Ryan, Pepijn Luijckx, Charlotte Carrier"Belleau, Interactive Effects of Copper Contamination and Salinization Across Multiple Genotypes of Daphnia magna, Ecology and Evolution, 15, (11), 2025, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Floriane E O'Keeffe, Rebecca C Pendleton, Celia V Holland, Pepijn Luijckx, Increased virulence due to multiple infection in Daphnia leads to limited growth in 1 of 2 co-infecting microsporidian parasites, Parasitology, 151, (1), 2024, p58 - 67, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Niamh McCartan, Jeremy Piggott, Sadie DiCarlo, and Pepijn Luijckx., Cold snaps lead to a 5-fold increase or a 3-fold decrease in disease proliferation depending on the baseline temperature., 2024, Notes: [accepted in BMC Biology pending minor revisions.], Working Paper, ACCEPTED  DOI
LA Rogers, Z Moore, A Daigle, P Luijckx, M Krkosek, Experimental evidence of size"selective harvest and environmental stochasticity effects on population demography, fluctuations and non"linearity, Ecology Letters, 26, (4), 2023, p586 - 596, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
JA Orr, P Luijckx, JF Arnoldi, AL Jackson, JJ Piggott, Rapid evolution generates synergism between multiple stressors: linking theory and an evolution experiment, Global Change Biology, 2022, p1 - 13, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Charlotte Kunze, Pepijn Luijckx, Andrew Jackson, Ian Donohue, Short-term dynamics of temperature change determine host and disease life history traits, Elife, 2022, p1 - 13, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Devin Kirk, Pepijn Luijckx, Natalie Jones, Leila Krichel, Clara Pencer, Péter Molnár and Martin Krko ek, Experimental evidence of warming-induced disease emergence and its prediction by a trait-based mechanistic model, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 287, (1936), 2020, p20201526 , Notes: [https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1526], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
D Kirk, P Luijckx, A Stanic, M Krko ek, Predicting the thermal and allometric dependencies of disease transmission via the metabolic theory of ecology, The American Naturalist , 193, (5), 2019, p661 - 676, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
  

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D Keller, D Kirk, P Luijckx, Four QTL underlie resistance to a microsporidian parasite that may drive genome evolution in its Daphnia host, 2019, Working Paper, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
highly commended, IEA (Irish Ecological Association) Excellent Ecology mid-career award. 2019
Recent outbreaks of diseases (e.g. Covid, Zika virus) underline the urgency of understanding how diseases transmit, spread and evolve. Although theory describing disease related processes has been well explored, direct empirical evidence for many key theories (e.g. the Red Queen Theory, density thresholds for disease outbreak) and their assumptions remains elusive. Validating these theories will be key to understanding future disease dynamics especially considering that infectious diseases are sensitive rising global temperatures associated with climate change. My research program seeks to test and validate evolutionary and ecological theory pertaining to diseases and parasites by asking: Do hosts density thresholds for disease spread exist? How does temperature and temperature variation impact disease outbreaks? How does genetic diversity among conspecific hosts influence the spread of disease? What is the genetic architecture underlying host-parasite interactions and how does it conform to the assumptions of evolutionary models? Why is sex so widespread despite its two-fold costs? How do multiple stressors associated with anthropogenic change interact and alter disease? To address these questions, I use Daphnia and its parasites (various microsporidia, bacteria, fungi and recently also a virus). This biomedical model system has numerous genetic tools available (QTL, GWAS, RNAi) and has a rich literature describing its biology. It is especially suited to perform experimental epidemiology, can be easily manipulated and is highly accessible for undergraduate and graduate students. Indeed, my research program has effectively addressed critical gaps in current knowledge, resulting in numerous high-impact publications in prestigious journals such as PNAS, Ecology Letters, and eLife. Moreover, with several projects nearing completion, I anticipate a continued upward trend in publication output. Currently, drafts for five manuscripts are finalized (with one accepted in BMC Biology pending minor revisions), and data analysis for an additional six manuscripts has been completed.