WashU

We study the evolutionary, genetic, molecular, cellular, and behavioral mechanisms underlying the interaction of animals with their physical and social environments. We use the powerful genetic model, Drosophila melanogaster, the European honey bee Apis mellifera, and mammalian models to ask where, when, and how the function of specific genes, cell types, and neuronal circuits affect behavioral plasticity and the behavioral response to specific environmental and social stimuli.

Our lab studies microbial metabolisms and their influence on biogeochemical cycling using an interdisciplinary approach. We apply the knowledge we gain to generate new ways of addressing issues such as the energy crisis, pollution, biofouling and sustainability.

We use an integrative approach to study animal communication and the evolution of sensory processing, using weakly electric fishes as a model system. Our work is unique in its application of detailed neurophysiology within a comparative behavioral framework, and it has implications for our understanding of neural mechanisms for behavior as well as the evolution of behavioral diversity.

The Dantas Lab works at the interface of microbial genomics, ecology, synthetic biology, and systems biology, to understand, harness, and engineer the biochemical processing potential of microbial communities. We take a quantitative ecological perspective in our study of diverse microbial communities, with a focus on human associated microbiota and interconnected environmental habitats. Accordingly, one of our major goals is to understand and quantitatively predict the effects of anthropogenic interventions (e.g. antibiotics) on microbial community composition and function.

I work with archaeobotanical remains to answer questions about how people interacted with plants so that they could eat and drink well, manage their landscapes, restore and maintain health, perform rituals, negotiate trade relationships, and enhance many other economic and social activities.  Much of my research focuses on processes of plant domestication and sequences leading to the development of agricultural systems worldwide, especially in North America and Mexico.  General concerns and approaches involve cultural, ecological, and biological aspects of subsistence change and continuity. Recently I've become interested in food-ways resulting from interaction between Native Americans and European colonizers.

The Multimodal Vision Research Laboratory develops new algorithms for image understanding. The lab uses techniques such as computer vision, remote sensing, machine learning, and reinforcement learning to develop tools for species recognition, biodiversity mapping, and wide-area movement modeling. The research often involves working with diverse data sources including consumer photographs, satellite/aerial/camera-trap imagery, GIS, and GPS trajectories.

We are fascinated by the elegant and diverse forms that plants can take, and we explore the biological basis of this diversity. For some of us, the exploration leads us to look below the surface at the machinery that controls plant shape and structure; this work has been variously described as evolutionary developmental genetics, or evo-devo. For others in the lab, the exploration leads us to investigate the variations on a single morphological theme by studying closely related plants in a single genus; these studies fall into the discipline of systematics.

I have two main research interests: First, what causes people to arrange themselves through time into increasingly complex forms of social organization? Second, how do climate and environment shape human societies through time? Related to this, I am especially interested in the Anthropocene concept, which argues that humans have come to rival nature as a force shaping the earth. My work therefore explores how, when, and to what extent humans have changed climates and especially their environments.

Our lab is involved in a range of research focused on early food-webs. We favor multidisciplinary research, and here in the lab isotope scientists, archaegologists and archaeobotanists work closely to address questions about diet and nutrition, palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment. Our recent projects have included: Eurasian crop plant movement, African terrestrial climate variability, consumption and domestication of small grained grass, environmental context of the food quest in Tibet.

The primary focus of the Losos Lab is on the behavioral and evolutionary ecology of lizards. Major questions concern how lizards interact with their environment and how lizard clades have diversified evolutionarily. Addressing such questions requires integration of behavioral, ecological, functional morphological, and phylogenetic studies. A major focus has been the evolutionary radiation of Caribbean Anolis lizards, but other lizard radiations are also being studied. A newly-developing line of research concerns whether and how species are adapting to urban environments.

My research focuses on animal domestication and the beginnings of food production in Africa. I am currently conducting research on two unlikely domesticates, donkeys and cats. I am currently conducting interdisciplinary research on the domestication of the donkey with archaeological, morphometric, genetic, behavioral and ethnoarchaeological components.  My research and that of my graduate students contributes to understanding human-animal relations, complex interactions among ancient agricultural, pastoral and hunter-gatherer societies in Africa, the history and resilience of livestock and herding ways of life, and the sustainability of use of African grasslands.

Dr. Krista Milich is a primate behavioral ecologist and socioendocrinologist with a particular interest in reproductive physiology, sexual selection, zoonotic diseases, community-driven research, and biodiversity conservation. She uses an interdisciplinary approach that combines evolutionary theory and social science practices to address pressing questions in our world.

Our research focuses on patterns and causes of biodiversity at multiple scales, ranging from variation in the diversity of species’ traits to gradients in the assembly, diversity and dynamics of ecological communities across the planet. We explore theories to explain why changes in biodiversity through space and time emerge through the interplay of fundamental processes of community ecology (speciation, dispersal, ecological drift & niche selection). To untangle these processes, we combine field experiments, large-scale and long-term observational studies, ecological modeling, and synthesis of biodiversity data from a wide range of plant communities spanning temperate and tropical ecosystems.

My research focuses on the genetic basis of evolution in plants: how is the genetic variation that we find within a species shaped by natural selection, population history, and other evolutionary forces? One way that I look at this question is by using crop domestication as a model for rapid evolutionary change. The wealth of genetic and genomic information available for crops makes them useful for studying the molecular evolution of genes in response to selection and other forces. In my lab we also study the evolutionary genetics of wild plant species. Topics of interest include the genetic basis of adaptive variation, the forces affecting genome-wide patterns of linkage disequilibrium, and phylogeography.

Perhaps no community is more diverse than the soil microbiome with its predators, parasites, scavengers, cooperators, and symbionts, for ultimately all primary productivity ends up on the ground or in the water. We are interested in social evolution and mutualism. Our team uses a social amoeba as a window on this world. It has a solitary and a social stage, with cooperation, conflict, and cheating. It is also has symbiotic relationships with bacteria which influence its role in the community. It even has its own tiny microbiome. Because this system is microbial, it is amenable to field and laboratory experimentation, genomics, experimental evolution, and understanding at the level of the gene. We have a diverse and dynamic team of undergraduates who also are involved in scientific outreach. We also see to it that they get the big picture with a class dedicated to research methods.

My research focuses on understanding the factors which have led to the emergence and promoted the maintenance of behavioral diversity in primates. I am particularly interested in the variation of social organization and material culture that has been documented among wild chimpanzee populations. This pursuit involves field studies and collaborative projects to examine instraspecific variation in the behavioral ecology of wild chimpanzees. These studies hold important insights for elucidating the role of ultimate and proximate forces in primate evolutionary history, which will aid in constructing valid models of human evolution from our closest living relatives.

I am a paleoanthropologist who studies the fossil record of human evolution. Humans diverged from non-human apes about seven million years ago in Africa, and my research is directed towards trying to understand several key aspects of our evolutionary history. First, I am interested in understanding how and why the various species of early humans (known as hominins) diversified.  Second, I am interested in the evolution of diet and feeding in fossil hominins. Third, I am interested in paleoanthropological fieldwork. In order to better understand human evolution, it is vital to discover new fossils in order to understand their variation, diversity, evolutionary relationships and ecological context.

Perhaps no community is more diverse than the soil microbiome with its predators, parasites, scavengers, cooperators, and symbionts, for ultimately all primary productivity ends up on the ground or in the water. We are interested in social evolution and mutualism. Our team uses a social amoeba as a window on this world. It has a solitary and a social stage, with cooperation, conflict, and cheating. It is also has symbiotic relationships with bacteria which influence its role in the community. It even has its own tiny microbiome. Because this system is microbial, it is amenable to field and laboratory experimentation, genomics, experimental evolution, and understanding at the level of the gene. We have a diverse and dynamic team of undergraduates who also are involved in scientific outreach. We also see to it that they get the big picture with a class dedicated to research methods.

The Topp Lab takes a phenomics approach to study crop root growth dynamics in response to environmental stress such as drought and rhizosphere competition, and as a consequence of artificial selection for agronomically important traits such as Nitrogen uptake. Studying roots requires the development of imaging technologies, computational infrastructure, and statistical methods that can capture and analyze morphologically complex networks over time and at high-throughput. Thus the lab combines expertise in imaging (optical, X-ray CT, PET, etc.), computational analysis, and quantitative genetics with molecular biology to understand root growth and physiology.