Faculty Research Interests

We use wildlife systems to study the causes and consequences of individual variation in infectious disease.

Currently I’m working on an NSF EEID funded project to study cross-scale heterogeneity in infection and interactions among nutrition and co-infection in bank voles. I collaborate with researchers at the University of Arkansas, University of Nebraska, University of Minnesota, University of Georgia, Princeton University, Leiden University Medical Center, and Stanford University for these projects.

We are interested in how microbes shape and influence the world around us from the molecular (traditional medicines as antibiotics) to ecological scale (effects of anthropogenic activity on the ecological range of pathogens).

Email: pchandrangsu@natsci.claremont.edu

My research focuses on the development and evolution of bird locomotion. I examine how anatomical structures like wings and legs change during development and evolution and how these changes influence locomotor performance and behavior.

My research is in the field of behavioral ecology, primarily with birds as study organisms. My current focus is on the behavior of migratory birds on their wintering grounds, specifically the social and migratory behavior of white-crowned sparrows wintering in Southern California.

Skills you can learn:

• Bird trapping and handling
• Banding, measuring, and bleeding birds
• Automated field cameras and image processing
• Song identification and analysis
• DNA analysis (extraction, PCR, gels)

Email: eferree@natsci.claremont.edu

My research focuses on mechanistically understanding extreme cases of conflict caused by selfish genetic elements. My current work uses a combination of genetic, genomic, molecular, and microscopic techniques to study how a selfish chromosome kills other chromosomes in the jewel wasp.

We use genomics approaches to understand the origin and maintenance of biodiversity.

I study plant genomics, and the focus of my research is a plant that is native to the western U.S. In my lab, students do diverse projects including bioinformatics, greenhouse experiments, microscopy-based work, and some molecular work.

My lab studies the organisms and communities of rocky intertidal shores, one of the most dynamic habitats on the planet. Intertidal shores alternate between terrestrial conditions, during low tide and marine conditions, when submerged at high tide. Each of these environments provides its own set of challenges to the organisms that inhabit it.

I am interested in the interaction between the nervous and musculoskeletal systems to produce coordinated movement. Most recently, my work focuses on measuring properties of muscles that are not well explained by current models.

Broadly our research uses cellular and genetic analysis to identify molecular players that affect cell division. Using fission yeast as the model organism, we are investigating the molecular targets of two protein kinases (Dsk1 and Kic1) and their effects on cell cycle.

In the Wilson lab we use budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to study mitochondrial stress response pathways. We are particularly interested in a dramatic membrane remodeling pathway, called mitochondrial-derived compartments, that robustly sequesters membrane and proteins into large, spherical compartments that are subsequently degraded.

My lab studies the causes (e.g., brain, hormone, social) and consequences of social behavior in a highly social fish model system.

Email: tsolomonlane@natsci.claremont.edu

Our research explores the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in neuronal homeostasis and how disruptions in these pathways contribute to psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Specifically, we are focused on how the brain maintains appropriate levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter critical in motivated behaviors and linked to addiction, depression, schizophrenia, and Parkinson’s disease. Using the fruit fly as a model system, we will employ genetic, imaging, biochemical, and behavioral techniques to investigate novel modulators of dopamine homeostasis and dopamine-dependent behaviors.