NEWS
March 2024: Interactions between dogs and kids decrease cortisol in both species! In children, this effect is largest for individuals with a (parent- and self-reported) stronger human-animal bond. This was part of a large, multi-year project that was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which also allowed us to examine the effect of the pandemic on child loneliness and human-animal bonds, both of which increased although the two were not related to each other. It's exciting to see part one of this project finally out. (Stay tuned for part two: oxytocin!)
January 2024: Neurophysin I (oxytocin's carrier protein) is an analytically robust surrogate biomarker for oxytocin, as we report in a new short communication in Psychoneuroendocrinology, and it's easier to measure (with no extraction, and a very short ELISA) than oxytocin is (thank heavens). The work reported here is primarily in humans, although we make use of oxytocin knockout mice again as a ground-truth. We're already working on extending this to other species though, so stay tuned!
December 2023: My first dissertation paper was published in Behavior Genetics! We explored associations between transponic insertions in the Williams-Beuren Syndrome critical region of dog chromosome 6 and social behavior, cognition, and training success in a working dog population, finding some strong associations with behavior and a moderate association between insertions in the gene GTF2I and training success in the Canine Companions population. Read more here, or ask me for the pdf.
August 2023: I've started as a postdoctoral fellow in the SoCap Lab, under the mentorship of Marcela Benítez. I'll be working on social cognition and oxytocin in capuchin monkeys, and I can't wait to get started with the monkeys, once I finish all my trainings!
July 2023: I defended my dissertation, and my committee passed me with no revisions! Phew. It feels good to be done. The dissertation is still embargoed, while I work on getting the remaining papers ready for preprinting and publication, but you can view the abstract here.
June 2023: The first of my dissertation papers has been preprinted! In it, we explored the associations between transponic insertions in the Williams-Beuren Syndrome region of the dog genome and social behavior, cognition, and training success in a working dog population, Canine Companions.
June 2022: My second oxytocin methods paper is out at Psychoneuroendocrinology! This one introduces a new extraction method that is especially important for minimizing interference in urinary samples.
April 2022: I was interviewed for this recent piece in The Atlantic about dog breeds and genomics.
March 2022: My second oxytocin methods paper has been preprinted! You can access the full preprint here, or read the summary thread on Twitter. It's focused on urinary oxytocin measures in a variety of species (using knockout mice again, as a ground-truth), epitope mapping of the Arbor Assays antibody, and cross-reactivity with biologically active fragments of oxytocin.
August 2021: My first oxytocin paper has been published! Check out the twitter thread about it, or the full text at Psychoneuroendocrinology.
July 2021: I had a nice discussion with Katie Wu at The Atlantic about cat and dog genomics, and why cats are understudied.
July 2021: I chatted with Utah Public Radio's Undisciplined about our lab's recent study on puppy cognition, as well as domestication, cats, and my journey to comparative cognition.
June 2021: I talked to a New Zealand Radio station about our lab's new study on puppy cognition, my fondness for Spitz dogs, and how genetics and environment combine to produce the behaviors we observe in dogs.
June 2021: Our lab published a new paper today, and it's gotten some popsci coverage! Check out this lovely write-up in the Smithsonian Magazine, this article from CNN, and this podcast from Scientific American.
May 2021: I commented on the recent cat cognition study that went viral for an article in The Atlantic, "Pay No Attention to that Cat Inside a Box". It's a really awesome study, so check it out if you haven't yet!
March 2021: Our lab's work on dog puppy cognition was written up in Science Magazine!
August 2020: Psychology Today's Animal Minds Blog featured my Dognition papers on the heritability and genetics of cognition across dog breeds!
July 2020: The Smithsonian Magazine just featured two of my recent papers exploring the genetic bases of cognition in dogs!
June 2020: A new paper, which came out of my master's work, was just published! Estimating the heritability of cognitive traits across dog breeds reveals highly heritable inhibitory control and communication factors.
May 2020: I was interviewed about dog domestication by Michael Suttle from DoggyDataZone. Take a listen!
June 2019: I was recently interviewed for another Nova article! This one is on the evolution of facial muscles in dogs and their potential communicative function.
May 2019: I recently commented on a study on prosociality in dogs and wolves for a Nova article.
July 2018: My summer research with wolf pups at the Wildlife Science Center in Minnesota was written up in the Star Tribune. Hope you enjoy the story and pictures!
