Classical whole animal physiology/endocrinology linked to in vitro isolated tissue and cell and molecular studies to investigate osmoregulatory function. The control of sodium and water balance in teleost fish. Expression and characterisation of Na+-K+-ATPase and ""CFR-like"" chloride channels in euryhaline fish. Environmental factors affecting stress, growth rate and development in aquaculture. Development of recirculation technology for application in aquaculture. Osmoregulation, physiology and behaviour of migratory sea trout. Control of sodium and urea metabolism in elasmobranch fish. Isolation and characterisation of novel elasmobranch peptides.

Classical whole animal physiology/endocrinology linked to in vitro isolated tissue and cell and molecular studies to investigate osmoregulatory function. The control of sodium and water balance in teleost fish. Expression and characterisation of Na+-K+-ATPase and "CFR-like" chloride channels in euryhaline fish. Environmental factors affecting stress, growth rate and development in aquaculture. Development of recirculation technology for application in aquaculture. Osmoregulation, physiology and behaviour of migratory sea trout. Control of sodium and urea metabolism in elasmobranch fish. Isolation and characterisation of novel elasmobranch peptides

Genomic and physiological approaches are being used to investigate muscle growth and adaptation in teleost fish.  Skeletal muscle fibres are produced during the embryonic, larval and adult stages. The genetic mechanisms controlling the production of muscle fibres and their subsequent hypertrophy are being studied. Several novel genes have been discovered that may inhibit myotube formation in adult fish and future research will elucidate their function.  microRNAs are short noncoding RNAs with largely uncharacterized regulatory roles that  represent a considerable part of the transcriptional output of animal and plant genomes. Our research with model species (pufferfish and zebrafish) has discovered some new miRNAs and is investigating changes in miRNA expression patterns with growth and environmental adaptation.  Several miRNAs have been identified that change in expression when myotube production becomes inhibited. The gene targets and function of these miRNAs is being elucidated. Other research interests include the role of maternally transmitted messenger RNAs in early development and developmental plasticity. The temperature of embryonic development has been shown to have persistent effects on muscle growth in adult stages and both the genetic mechanisms and physiological consequences at the whole animal level are being investigated.

Animal Physiology

Muscle action and performance during locomotion in molluscs, fishand amphibians. The implications of body size for muscle functionin vivo. The evolution of muscle performance characteristics inrelation to environmental temperature with particular referenceto sub-Antarctic and Antarctic Notothenioid fishes and bivalvemolluscs. The phenotypic plasticity of muscle to temperature changeduring ontogeny: molecular and cellular mechanisms and evolutionarysignificance. Laboratory and field studies on muscle developmentand growth regulation in fish, with particular reference to temperature.The effects of ploidy manipulation and sex-reversal on musclegrowth characteristics in fish.

My principle academic interests are in the general area of animal behaviour and evolution, with a specific focus on animal social learning, cultural evolution and niche construction. I am engaged in empirical studies of animal social learning and innovation, including experimental work with fish, birds, non-human primates and humans. This laboratory work is complemented by theoretical investigations of the role of niche construction in evolution, the diffusion dynamics of learned behaviour and the co-evolution of genes and culture throughout human evolution.

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

President of the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association.

Editor, Animal Behaviour, 2005-2008.

Member of The Royal Society’s Dorothy Hodgkin fellowship scheme selection panel, 2004-2008.

Core member of EU-funded research network CULTAPTATION (NEST-PATH-043434).

Principal Investigator of the AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity (CECD), UCL.

Principal Investigator on four current research council grants, with a combined value of nearly £3 million.

Recipient of ERC Advanced Grant (2,128,195 Euros)

Past recipient of a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, as well as postdoctoral fellowships from the Human Frontier Science Programme Organization and the BBSRC.

Research Group: Ms Nicola Atton (EU), Ms Alice Cowie (EU), Mr Lewis Dean (EU), Ms Laurel Fogarty (BBSRC), Dr William Hoppitt (BBSRC), Dr Anne Kandler (AHRC), Ms Katherine Meacham (EU), Mr Thomas Morgan (EU), Dr Luke Rendell (EU), Dr Mike Webster (NERC), Ms Birgit Weinman (NERC).

My research encompasses a range of topics related to animal behaviour and evolution, particularly social learning, cultural evolution and niche construction, employing both experimental and theoretical approaches.

Current Projects

Niche Construction

Organisms construct and select important components of their environment, in the process affecting both the selection acting on themselves and their descendants, and the availability of resources to other organisms. We investigate niche construction using population genetics models and in an experimental marine invertebrate system.

Social Learning Strategies

Animals learn from others selectively according to evolved rules, called ‘social learning strategies’. This project investigates such strategies, through experimental studies in monkeys (capuchins, callitrichids), birds (budgerigars) and fish (sticklebacks), and through evolutionary game theory modelling.

Predicting the Diffusion and Inheritance of Behavioural Innovations

A challenge for social learning researchers is to identify animal ‘traditions’ and to work out how novel behaviour and skills spread. We use experimental studies of budgerigars and mathematical / statistical methods to determine where animals have acquired their behaviour through social learning, and how novel behaviour spreads in animal populations. The methods are applied to isolate ‘culture’ in natural animal populations, including chimpanzees and dolphins.

Intelligence and Brain Evolution in Primates

We conduct comparative statistical analyses exploring the correlates and causes of the large primate brain and the evolution of intelligence. Social learning, innovation and tool use all co-vary with primate relative brain size and may have been drivers of brain evolution.

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

• Social learning strategies
• Predicting the diffusion and inheritance of behavioural innovations
• Intelligence and brain evolution in primates
• Niche construction

Comparative and evolutionary immunology

Innate immunity in invertebrates and lower vertebrates. Antibacterial proteins in crustaceans, ascidians, cnidarians, teleosts , elasmobranchs and marine mammals. Plasticity within the innate responses of these animals. Immune development in fish and marine invertebrates and effect of environment. Complement phylogeny. Virus diseases and antiviral immunity in crustaceans. Marine invertebrate blood cell culture. Development of molecular probes for disease diagnosis in marine shellfish. Effects of environmental factors on immune capability in marine animals. Wastewater treatment by marine micro-algae. Antibacterial compounds from micro-algae.

General areas of research: Comparative immunology and marine microbiology

Innate immunity in invertebrates, lower vertebrates and marine mammals.
Antibacterialproteins in crustaceans, ascidians, cnidarians, teleosts and pinniped seals.
Plasticity within the innate responses of marine animals.
Immunedevelopment in fish and marine invertebrates and effect of environment on immune function.
Complement phylogeny.
Virus diseases and antiviral immunity incrustaceans.
Marine invertebrate blood cell culture.
Developmentof molecular probes for disease diagnosis in marine shellfish.
Antibacterialproducts from marine micro-algae and cyanobacteria.

Our research interests embrace a variety of marine ecological topics, ranging from the development and dynamics of hard substratum epifaunal ("fouling") communities, to responses of invertebrate larvae at metamorphosis and the population genetics of marine molluscs and crustaceans

My postgraduate research concerned various aspects of the ecology of intertidal nudibranch molluscs. Subsequently, I became especially interested in the evolution of differing reproductive 'strategies' among marine invertebrates, and continued to use nudibranch molluscs as an experimental model system. This topic has been investigated by us both from functional energetic, conceptual and population genetics standpoints. In addition, however, I have also more general interests in benthic community ecology. This latter has concerned especially the development and dynamics of intertidal and sublittoral marine epifaunal ('fouling') assemblages on natural hard substrata on the west coast of Scotland and the applied importance of artificial reefs.
Our recent interests have focused on epifaunal larval settlement responses to specific substratum-associated biofilm cues and the presence of previously settled post-larvae. With specific reference to the intertidal barnacle, Semibalanus balanoides, we have developed an effective and very simple laval trap for deployment on rocky shores and we are now also assessing the importance of wave crash and wind strength/direction on the larval input to benthic intertidal substrata.

Ecological Genetics of Parasitic Sea Lice

Inducible Morphology in Marine Bryozoans

Larval Dispersal

Biofilms and Larval Settlement

Bryozoans

Salmonid Parasites