Sensory Biology and Behavior (SBB) Research Group
This graduate training group focuses on research at the intersection of neurobiology, behavior, and evolution directed at how organisms sense and respond to their environment at functional and evolutionary levels. Research includes mechanisms of sensory system function, neuroethology, behavioral ecology, sexual selection, sensory ecology, genomics and evolutionary developmental biology of sensory traits and response systems. Research at the intersection of these disciplines is making significant contributions to many other areas, including human behavior and medicine, molecular genetics, physiology and endocrinology, ecology and evolutionary biology. Faculty in this group form interdisciplinary collaborations within the department and with faculty in the UC College of Medicine, Environmental Health, and Engineering, Children's Hospital Research Center, and Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden.
Graduate Advisors for MS Thesis and PhD Program
* Indicates lab is accepting graduate applications for the upcoming Fall Semester
Joshua Benoit*
Lab Website
Email Address: benoitja@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Insect stress tolerance, hormonal regulation of metabolism, reproductive physiology
The Benoit lab studies the mechanisms underlying insect stress tolerance and dormancy, reproductive physiology, and regulation of metabolism; with a slant towards medically-important arthropods.
Daniel Buchholz *
Email address: buchhodr@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Evolution and development; hormonal control of development
The Buchholz lab studies the role of hormones in development and evolution. In particular the lab examines frog metamorphosis through comparative endocrinology
Elke Buschbeck*
Lab Website
Email address: buschbek@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Neuroethology: function and evolution of insect visual systems
The Buschbeck lab studies the function, development and evolution of invertebrate eyes.
Edwin Griff
Email address: griffer@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Neurophysiology of vertebrate sensory systems; olfaction, biology education
Joshua Gross*
Lab Website
Email address: grossja@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Molecular and genetic bases for cave adaptation; evolution and development
The Gross lab studies the genetic and developmental mechanisms that underlie morphological, sensory, physiological and behavioral evolution. We utilize a model system called the blind Mexican cavefish.
Patrick Guerra*
Lab Website
Email address: guerrapk@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Sensory ecology; orientation and navigation mechanisms; animal architecture
The Guerra lab studies how animals use sensory cues from their environment to move in time and space. Behavioral, physiological, and genetic approaches are used to understand the mechanisms and evolution of animal movement.
Elizabeth Hobson*
Lab Website
Email address: hobsoneh@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Ecology and evolution of social complexity; cognitive ecology; social structure
The Hobson lab research focuses on social information: what animals know about their social worlds, how they come to know it, and what they do with that information.
Bruce Jayne*
Lab Website
Email address: jaynebc@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Neural control of movement and behavior of ectothermic vertebrates.
The Jayne lab uses comparative studies to determine the relative importance of variation in anatomy, behavior and environmental factors for affecting whole-animal function.
Noelia Lander*
Email address: landernm@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Molecular Parasitology, trypanosomes, cell signaling, host-parasite interaction, genome editing, CRISPR/Cas9.
Integrating cellular, biochemical and genetic approaches the Lander lab studies the signaling pathways by which Trypanosoma cruzi—the etiological agent of Chagas disease—senses microenvironmental changes and triggers specific cellular responses that lead to differentiation among the main stages of the parasite's life cycle.
John Layne*
Email address: john.layne@uc.edu
Research interest: Neuroethology; mechanisms of animal navigation
The Layne lab aims to discover how sense organs, and the neural processing of sensory information, mediate and constrain animal behavior.
Nathan Morehouse*
Lab Website
Email address: morehonn@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interests: Visual and behavioral ecology, coevolutionary dynamics of reproductive traits
The Morehouse Lab studies the visual ecology and reproductive biology of insects and spiders. Research themes include the evolution of visual functions like color vision and gaze control, and more.
Michal Polak*
Lab Website
Email address: polakm@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Evolution of insect reproductive traits; sexual selection
The Polak lab addresses fundamental questions in evolutionary biology. The research pursued encompasses sexual selection, nutritional ecology, and host-parasite interactions.
Stephanie Rollmann*
Lab Website
Email address: stephanie.rollmann@uc.edu
Research interest: Genetics and neurobiology of behavior, olfaction; chemical ecology
The Rollmann lab takes a multi-dimensional approach to understanding the genetic and neural underpinnings of chemical communication and behavior by combining behavioral, molecular genetic and neurophysiological approaches.
George Uetz
Email address: uetzgw@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Animal communication, sensory ecology and sexual selection; arachnology
The Uetz lab works on the sensory ecology of multimodal communication (visual and vibratory) and its role in sexual selection and species recognition in spiders.
Dieter Vanderelst*
Lab Website
Email address: vanderdt@ucmail.uc.edu
Research interest: Models of bat echolocation and flight control, robotic and computational models
The Vanderelst lab models echolocation based navigation, flight control and foraging in bats. The lab uses simulation methods, artificial sonar systems, and robots to study the sensorimotor loops underlying bat biosonar.