Principal Investigator
Christine Lattin, PhD - Dr. Lattin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and joined the LSU faculty in 2018. Dr. Lattin’s research examines hormones, the brain, and behavior in wild songbirds, in part to better understand the impacts of stress on humans and wildlife. Her research is currently funded by an NSF CAREER award that she received in 2023.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Tori Coutts, PhD - Dr. Coutts joined the lab as a Postdoctoral Researcher in 2024. She is broadly interested in how environmental challenges influence avian physiology, behavior, and gene expression. Her research focuses on gene expression differences related to neophobia phenotypes and environmental impacts on reproductive trade-offs.
Graduate Students
Katie Stewart (with her dog Ribsy) - Katie became a PhD student in the lab in 2024. She is interested in studying the developmental neurobiology and physiology of bird behavior, with a particular interest in sensory physiology.
Allison Morales Palomino - Allison joined the lab as a PhD student in 2024. Her research interests include host-parasite interactions and their impacts on animal physiology.
Marquise Henry (with his cat Poppy) - Marquise joined the lab as a PhD student in 2023. He is interested in the role of different neurotransmitters, hormones, and brain regions in mediating neophobia behavior. Marquise is a Huel D. Perkins Fellow.
Postbaccalaureate Researchers
Elena Liebl - Elena joined the lab as an NSF RaMP LAGNiAppE Postbaccalaureate Researcher in 2024. Elena’s research project is examining differences in dewlap color and behavior in Anolis lizards.
Undergraduate Researchers
Mikey Wilson - Mikey has been an Undergraduate Researcher in the lab since 2024. He is working on projects related to the role of the hippocampus in responding to novelty.
Manishq Goribidanur - Manishq joined the lab in 2024. He is a Stamps Scholar and part of the LSU President’s Future Leaders in Research program. He is investigating how gene expression changes in responses to ectoparasites.
Caroline Henry (with her dog Roman) - Caroline joined the lab in fall 2023. She is a Stamps Scholar and part of the LSU President’s Future Leaders in Research program, and is investigating the microbiome of native and invasive lizards.
Past Lab Members
Danna Masri (undergraduate researcher, 2023-2025) - Danna was part of the LSU President’s Future Leaders in Research program. Danna’s Senior Honors Thesis explored links between neophobia and other cognitive and behavioral traits. Danna received the Biological Sciences undergraduate student award and was a Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher.
Ilea Kuo (undergraduate researcher, 2023-2025) - Ilea’s Senior Honors Thesis examined the incidence of avian malaria in free-living European starlings.
Will Frazier (undergraduate researcher, 2023-2025) - Will worked on a variety of projects in the lab and field, most recently collaborating with Danna Masri on a project examining links between neophobia and other behaviors.
Blake Dusang (with her cat Josie) (undergraduate researcher, 2023-2024) - Blake worked on several different projects in the lab, and did an independent project examining whether individual variation in object neophobia was correlated with individual variation in spatial variation (spoiler alert: it’s not).
Ella Cochran (undergraduate researcher, 2022-2024) - Ella’s Senior Honors Thesis used transcriptomics to understand individual variation in neophobia, and was awarded the LSU Ogden Honors College Outstanding Capstone Award in the category of Life Sciences.
Emily Stelling (Postbaccalaureate Scholar, 2023-2024) - Emily’s research project focused on the relationship between hormones, behavior, and invasiveness in lizards. Emily is currently a Master’s student in the lab of Sarah Fritts at Texas State University.
Tosha Kelly, PhD (Postdoc, 2019-2024) - Tosha’s research focused on corticosterone and immunity during avian malaria infection. She received several awards and fellowships to support her work, including a Life Sciences Research Foundation fellowship in 2020 and the Dorothy Skinner award from the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in 2023. Tosh is now a Postdoctoral Researcher in the lab of Brian Trevelline at Kent State University.
Keegan Stansberry, PhD (PhD student, 2019-2024) - Keegan’s research examined how climate change affects developmental stressors, including the effects of sibling competition and ectoparasites. Keegan received several grants to support his work, including LSU’s T. Vinton Holmes Ornithology Award. Keegan is currently a postdoc in Ethan Anderson’s lab at the LSU Vet School.
Melanie Kimball-Toups, PhD (PhD student, 2019-2024) - Melanie’s PhD research focused on the neurobiology of cognitive traits like neophobia. Melanie received several student research grants to support her work, most notably a P.E.O. Scholar Award and LSU Dissertation Year Fellowship. Melanie is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the lab of Dr. Felicity Muth at UC Davis.
Kenedi Lynch (undergraduate researcher, 2020-2024) - Kenedi was a Stamps Scholar, part of the PFLR program, a 2022 Amgen Scholar, and a 2023 Goldwater Scholar and Astronaut Scholar. Kenedi received Charles S. McCleskey and Undergraduate Research Awards from the Dept of Biological Sciences, and was a Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher. Her Senior Honors Thesis focused on potential biomarkers for cerebral malaria.
Maggie Dunn (undergraduate researcher, 2023-2024) - Maggie worked on projects related to avian malaria, and was part of the President’s Future Leaders in Research program at LSU.
Raedan Stephens (undergraduate researcher, 2021-2023) - Raedan was part of the LSU President’s Future Leaders in Research program, and during his time in the lab he helped adapt new technologies like RFID to study bird behavior in the wild.
Kevin Krajcir (graduate student, 2022-2023) - Kevin studied neophobia in Eurasian Tree Sparrows. He is currently Grants Coordinator for the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission.
Riley Noble (with her dogs Rosie and Harley) (undergraduate researcher, 2022-2023) - Riley graduated in spring 2023 as an LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher. Her Senior Honors Thesis examined whether the composition of the gut microbiome protects birds against disease. Riley is currently pursuing an MD at the LSU Health Science Center in Shreveport.
Ayushi Patel (undergraduate researcher, 2022-2023) - Ayushi graduated in spring 2023 as an LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher. Her research in the lab focused on developing methods to visualize dopamine receptors in active neurons. Ayushi is currently a PhD student at the LSU Health Science Center.
Raven Bocage (undergraduate researcher, 2022) - Raven spent a semester doing research in the lab for course credit, conducting lab work related to our field studies of free-living European starlings.
Allison Cannon (with her dog Cricket) (undergraduate researcher, 2020-2022) - Allison’s Senior Honors Thesis was about how the hormone corticosterone affects immune signaling. Allison is currently pursuing an MD at the LSU Health Science Center.
Kaitlin Couvillion (undergraduate researcher, 2018-2022) - Kaitlin’s Senior Honors Thesis focused on the impacts of ectoparasites on nestling songbirds. She was a LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher and received the Charles S. McCleskey Memorial Endowed Scholarship in 2021 and the Socolofsky Scholarship in 2022. Kaitlin is currently an MD/PhD student at the LSU Health Science Center.
Courtney Harding (undergraduate researcher, 2021-2022) - Courtney was an LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher, and her Senior Honors Thesis examined how estrogen affects the perception of environmental stressors. Courtney was a Ronald E. McNair Research Scholar, and is currently pursuing an MD at the LSU Health Science Center.
Abigail Vinson (undergraduate researcher, 2018-2020) - Abby was an LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher. Her Senior Honors Thesis was on the effects of personality traits and stress on the microbiome.