Hopi Hoekstra
Alexandra Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Harvard College Professor, FAS
The Hoekstra lab is interested in understanding the genetic and neural basis of behavioral evolution. Specifically, we capitalize on natural variation within or between species of wild deer mice (genus Peromyscus) to identify regions of the genome and/or the brain that contribute to behavioral differences, which in turn affect individual fitness in natural environments. To address this goal, we combine fieldwork, novel behavioral assays, machine-learning approaches, automated behavioral tracking, genomics, neural recordings and optogenetics.