Christine Drea Lab
Research Overview
The Drea lab studies aspects of mammalian social behavior and reproductive behavior focused on carnivores and primates. Particularly the unusual species in which the females display a suite of masculinized characteristics including male-like or exaggerated external genitalia and social dominance. Of primary concern are the physiological and behavioral correlates of reproductive and social development, with a focus on mechanisms of sexual differentiation. Through a combined laboratory and field approach, Drea lab investigates such areas as reproductive and socio-endocrinology, genital and developmental morphology, and social behavior (particularly aggression, play, and scent marking in both sexes). The Drea lab seeks to shed light on such questions as the evolution of female social dominance and the mechanisms of mammalian sexual differentiation.
Current projects include:
-Neuro-endocrine and behavioral mechanisms of female dominance and reproductive skew in wild meerkats
-Comparative studies on the composition of chemical signals
-The genetic diversity of several immune function genes in ring-tailed lemurs
-Olfactory communication in Propithecus coquereli
-Behavior and neuro-endrocrinology in several species from Eulemur
Scroll through the photos below to see the animal members of the Drea Lab.
Photos by Marylene Boulet, Marie Charpentier, Jeremy Crawford, Javi delBarco-Trillo, Lydia Greene, and David Haring.
Drea Lab Exciting News!
October
- The Drea lab will accepting applications for a graduate student through Evolutionary Anthropology, to begin in Fall 2013. Interested students should check out the Prospective Students page.
- Dr. Drea was invited to give one of Duke's most prestigious seminars at the Thomas A. Langford Lecture Series.
September
- The Drea lab welcomes two new Duke undergraduate researchers, Ben Biederman and Skylar Klager.
- Lydia has left for her second field season in the KMP. We hope she has lots of fun and collects amazing data.
- Kendra Smyth has matriculated to the Drea lab as a first year graduate student in the University Program in Ecology.
- New publication from the Drea lab: delBarco-Trillo, J., Harelimana, I.H., Goodwin, T.E., & Drea, C.M. (in press) Chemical differences between voided and bladder urine in the aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis): Implications for olfactory communication studies. American Journal of Primatology.
July
- New Publication from the Drea lab: Rushmore, J, Leonhardt, S.D., & Drea, C.M. (2012) Sight or scent: lemur sensory reliance in detecting food quality varies with feeding ecology. PLoS ONE 7 (8).
- Publication in print from the Drea lab: delBarco-Trillo, J., Sacha, C., Dubay, G., & Drea, C.M. (2012). Eulemur, me lemur: the evolution of scent-signal complexity in a primate clade. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367: 1909-1922.
- Congratulations! Katie was awarded a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant in Biological Anthropology.
- Katie has safely returned from Madagascar with 140 fecal samples from wild ring-tailed lemurs and many tales
May
- Katie is leaving for a field season in Madagascar. We wish her well!
- Katie has been awarded a grant from the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation for her work in ring-tailed lemur genetic health and immune function
- The Drea Lab Undergraduate Class of 2012 has graduated and moved on to exciting new opportunities! Congratulations to Adam Gross, Wendy McGinnis, and Alex Shams!
- Lydia has returned from the KMP in South Africa full of meerkat stories and bringing tons of samples and data
- Dr. Drea has been promoted to Full Professor! Congratulations!
