Yesterday afternoon, one of my undergraduate mentees, Clarissa, successfully defended her senior honors thesis! For her senior thesis project, Clarissa showed that sex-specific and seasonal changes in gut microbiome composition are associated with aggressive behavior in male and female hamsters. This presentation was the culmination of several years of research that Clarissa conducted in the Demas lab. Congratulations on all of your hard work, Clarissa, and I’m so proud of you!