Research Focus

My research program focuses on the regulation of salt and water balance in aquatic animals. An emphasis is placed on the endocrine system as a link between environmental change and physiological response as well as the permeability properties of occluding junctions – vertebrate tight junctions and invertebrate septate junctions.

We use model organisms that allow broad insight into processes understudies, such as aquatic arthropods (e.g. mayfly nymphs), an extant agnathan (the sea lamprey), teleost fishes, and amphibia. Current areas of interest include (but are not limited to);

1. The regulation of epithelial permeability in response to environmental and systemic change
2. Endocrine factors that regulate paracellular permeability
3. Characterization of occluding junction proteins in epithelia
4. The impact of salinization on freshwater aquatic organisms

I run a research program where the intellectual involvement as well as the capacity for growth and development of trainees is front and center.

Sub-Discipline

Animal Physiology, Endocrinology, Environmental Biology

Research Areas