Hormones play important roles in the regulation of many physiological and behavioral processes.
Perhaps nowhere is this regulation more critical that during reproduction, where the production of young must be adjusted to meet rapid changes in environmental conditions. My lab is studying the physiological and cellular mechanisms used by arthropods to regulate their reproduction, and is focused largely on the roles of the juvenile hormones and ecdysteroids in these processes. To this end, we have developed sensitive methods for detecting these hormones in both insects and crustaceans. We have also isolated neuroendocrine peptides that regulate the production of these compounds. Finally, we have recently isolated cDNA clones for several proteins, including yolk proteins, involved in the synthesis of these proteins.