I am specifically interested in how this slug orients its crawling to magnetic fields, food odors, and water flow. My lab will support students interested in animal behavior, biomechanics, sensory function, brain cell structure, and motor neuron recording. Student projects may involve computer analysis of video, correlation of brain cell activity with simultaneous video of behavior, fluorescent staining of, and recording from brain cells. I may also seek students interested in the behavioral ecology of sea slugs and their population genetics. Summer research is on an island in Washington State .
Apoptosis is important for the normal development and maintenance of multicellular organisms.
Abnormal regulation of apoptosis has been implicated in human disease conditions such as cancer, AIDS, and Alzheimer's disease. We are particularly interested how intracellular pH changes affect apoptosis and how manipulation of a cell's pH regulatory proteins can determine if the cell will live or die. One of our main objectives is to determine, on the molecular level, how a drop in intracellular pH can trigger a cell to die by apoptosis. My research in biological oceanography involves several aspects of the natural history and systematics of marine macro-invertebrates including biodiversity, population dynamics, systematics, and volution. My field study sites include the barrier island system of coastal Georgia and the deep-sea wreck of a 19th century side wheel steamer located at a depth of about 8000 ft approximately 200 miles off the east coast of the United States.