Event Date
Caitlin Miller, UC Chanceller Fellow & IRACDA Fellow, University of California, San Diego, presents "Pregnancy-induced plasticity in the brain and behavior".
I earned my BA in Biology at Reed College, where I explored sexually dimorphic aggression in the cichlid fishes. My passion for animal behavior led me to fieldwork on desert baboons in Namibia and Black-backed woodpeckers in California as a post-baccalaureate researcher. Later, in the Mandel Lab at OHSU, I investigated the molecular interactions between astrocytes and neurons. During my PhD in the Sheehan Lab at Cornell University, I studied state-modulated communication strategies in house mice, uncovering how internal states shape behavior. Now, as a UCSD Chancellor Fellow and IRACDA Postdoctoral Fellow in the Bambah-Mukku Lab at UCSD, I focus on the molecular and physiological brain changes during pregnancy. Specifically, I study how this life history stage orchestrates adaptive behaviors, with an emphasis on the hypothalamus—a key neural hub of social behavior, reproduction, and homeostatic regulation.
Host: Kate Laskowski (klaskowski@ucdavis.edu)