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- Robert Kozol, Ph.D.
Research
The Kozol lab utilizes the blind Mexican cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus) as an evolutionary model to understand how differences in genes and neurons impact behavior. Cavefish provide a remarkable model for studying how environmental variation and genetic diversity manifest novel biological traits through the process of evolution. A. mexicanus exists as ~30 independently derived blind cave populations and river-dwelling eyed surface fish. Importantly, these populations can cross-fertilize and produce hybrid offspring, which allows us to map genes to novel biological traits. Cavefish have been found to have reduced sleep and stress, a loss of social behavior, and changes in sensorimotor integration. Our lab uses this unique group of organisms to study how changes at the neuronal and brain-wide scale impact behaviors related to sensory integration and brain homeostasis.
For more information, please check out our laboratory website. https://a-cavefishneuroevoluti.vev.site/lab-website
BIO III INTRO ANAT & PHY LAB, BIO 3001L
MOLECULAR NEUROSCIENCE, BIO 210-0
BIO INTRO NEUROBIOLOGY, BIO 225-0