NSERC CGS PhD Student (Sept 2019 – Present) Exposure to early-life stress can have long-term consequences on health and fitness, however, proximate mechanisms linking these phenomena are poorly understood. An animal’s physiological response to stressful stimuli is primarily mediated by activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Recently, the gut-microbiome has been identified as existing in…