Photos

Faculty member Robert Raguso meets the anaconda, Eunectes murinus, at an open-air zoo along the Amazon in Leticia, Colombia.  Luckily for Robert, the snake was fed recently.  Robert’s area of research is the coevolution of flowers and pollinators, which takes him to interesting areas in the field.

In the foreground, undergraduate Nupur Agrawal is studying the role of genes involved in epilepsy using Drosophila as a model.  Bang-sensitive flies are an excellent system for identifying genes that contribute to seizure development.  In the background, research assistant Jad Husseini is loading PCR products on an agarose gel while simultaneously telling a joke, illustrating the importance of multitasking in molecular biology.  Faculty member David Deitcher and graduate student Hannah Kim are enjoying the story.

Graduate student Jude Scarl is interested in vocal communication in parrots, in a natural setting.  She is studying the Rose-breasted Cockatoo or galah (Eolophus roseicapillus), one of the most widespread cockatoos in Australia.  Jude is studying the components of calls in effort to understand how they function in defense, individual identity, and mating.

Graduate student Amina Kinkahabwala is studying the development of neurons in the hindbrain of the zebrafish (Danio rerio).  Since zebrafish larvae are transparent, she is able to genetically mark classes of neurons with variants of GFP and track them during development.  The goal of her research is to define how neuronal circuits form during development. 

Bass laboratory members are trying to catch midshipman fish, Porichthys notatus, in Tomales Bay, just north of San Francisco. During the mating season, males broadcast a sound usually called a hum, to attract females to the nest. The duration of the hum can last up to an hour. Reproductive females have increased auditory sensitivity to the male hum as compared to females in the non-breeding season.  This change in sensitivity is estrogen dependent and may depend on changes in ion channel expression.

Graduate student Lynn Fletcher works in the area of chemical defense in insects and she uses as her model organism the sawfly larva, Perga affinis.  This larva is also called the “spitfire” by local Australians, since they produce a yellow-green chemical regurgitant as a defense.  The larvae live gregariously for their 6-month larval stage and communicate via substrate vibrations.