Our lab aims to understand how behavior adapts to different genetic, physiological, and environmental conditions, with a focus on those associated with aging and age-related disease.

We are particularly interested in how social behaviors adapt to these different developmental and pathological states. To address these questions, we primarily use the prairie vole, a species that demonstrates complex social behaviors and long term bonds, and apply molecular genetic approaches, deep behavioral phenotyping, genomics, and functional imaging in this system and others. We are motivated to understand how altered social behaviors both reflect and precipitate disease, especially neurodegenerative and other age-associated diseases, and keep translational perspectives and opportunities at the forefront in our work.