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Lauren O'Connell (scientist)

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Lauren O'Connell
Born
Texas, U.S.
Alma materTarrant County College
Cornell University
Scientific career
InstitutionsHarvard University
Stanford University
ThesisEvolution of neuroendocrine mechanisms regulating adaptive behavior (2011)

Lauren O'Connell is an American neurobiologist and associate professor in the Department of Biology at Stanford University, specializing in the intersections of behavioral neuroscience, ecology, and evolution.[1] Her research considers how animals handle challenges in their environment.[2] She received a L'Oréal-USA For Women in Science fellowship in 2015.

Early life and education

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O'Connell is from rural Texas.[3] She grew up on a goat farm in a family of six.[3] She has said that growing up on a farm and working with animals made her enthusiastic about science.[4] After high school, she attended Tarrant County College, where she earned an Associate of Arts in Natural Sciences in 2004[5] and she spent two years before joining Cornell University.[4] At Cornell, she became interested in animal behavior from a mechanistic perspective. After completing her undergraduate degree, she moved to the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied social networks in Cichlid fish with Hans Hofmann.[4]She earned a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology in 2011. [6]Her doctoral research explored neural and molecular mechanisms underlying social behavior in vertebrates.[7]

In 2014, she won a L'Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowship[8] and she also won a Changing Face of STEM Mentorship award in 2016.[9]

Career

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After completing her Ph.D., O'Connell was appointed a Bauer Fellow at Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, where she established her independent research laboratory at the age of 27. [8]

In 2017, she joined the Department of Biology at Stanford University as an Assistant Professor and was later promoted to Associate Professor.[4]

At Stanford, O'Connell has continued to lead pioneering research on amphibians, focusing on the ecological and evolutionary implications of their behaviors and physiological traits. She has also played a prominent role in mentoring young scientists and promoting diversity within academia.[10]

She had become interested in the evolution of parental care in an animal clade that had a lot of variation in reproductive strategies.[4] During her postdoctoral research, she founded the “Little Froggers School Program”, a scheme which supports K–12 teachers in learning more about amphibians.[8]

Research

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Her research considers genetic and environmental contributions to the behavior of poison frogs.[11] O'Connell noted that maternal behavior has only evolved once in mammals, and wanted to identify whether there were different ways to build a maternal brain.[12] She identified that mother frogs transfer their poisons to their offspring in an effort to provide some chemical defences to their young tadpoles.[12][13][14]

Her lab has demonstrated that poison frogs acquire their toxins from their diet, particularly from ants and mites. [15]This dietary dependency highlights the impact of habitat destruction, as declining habitat quality reduces the availability of these toxin-rich prey, diminishing the frogs' chemical defenses and increasing their vulnerability to predators. Additionally, early findings in her lab suggested that ion channel mutations could be key to poison resistance in frogs.[16]

In her work on parental behaviors, O’Connell's research has revealed that the neural circuits promoting parenting in poison frogs are similar in both males and females.[13] In species where males predominantly provide care, females can assume parenting roles when males are absent, demonstrating the plasticity of these neural mechanisms.[17] Notably, galanin neurons are particularly active in parenting behaviors in frogs, findings consistent with similar studies in mammals such as mice. [18]Her lab has also uncovered species-specific differences in the regulation of parenting behaviors, with South American and Malagasy poison frogs displaying distinct neural adaptations.[19]

Awards and honors

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Selected publications

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  • Lauren A O'Connell; Hans A. Hofmann (1 December 2011). "The vertebrate mesolimbic reward system and social behavior network: a comparative synthesis". The Journal of Comparative Neurology. 519 (18): 3599–3639. doi:10.1002/CNE.22735. ISSN 0021-9967. PMID 21800319. Wikidata Q37907986.
  • Lauren A O'Connell; Hans A. Hofmann (1 June 2012). "Evolution of a vertebrate social decision-making network". Science. 336 (6085): 1154–1157. doi:10.1126/SCIENCE.1218889. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 22654056. Wikidata Q48486705.
  • Catherine Dulac; Lauren A O'Connell; Zheng Wu (14 August 2014). "Neural control of maternal and paternal behaviors". Science. 345 (6198): 765–770. doi:10.1126/SCIENCE.1253291. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 4230532. PMID 25124430. Wikidata Q34433621.

Personal life

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O'Connell completed a professional training qualification in culturally aware mentorship to be able to better support students from historically marginalized groups.[3]

References

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  1. ^ "The Mystery Protein: Safeguarding Poison Dart Frogs From Their Own Toxins". SciTechDaily. 2023-12-26. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
  2. ^ "Frogs in space". news.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
  3. ^ a b c "Lauren A. O'Connell | Laboratory of Organismal Biology". oconnell.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Early career researchers: an interview with Lauren O'Connell". Journal of Experimental Biology. 220 (13): 2303–2305. 2017-07-01. Bibcode:2017JExpB.220.2303.. doi:10.1242/jeb.163543. ISSN 1477-9145. PMID 28679788. S2CID 4386769.
  5. ^ "Early career researchers: an interview with Lauren O'Connell". Journal of Experimental Biology. 220 (13): 2303–2305. 2017-07-01. Bibcode:2017JExpB.220.2303.. doi:10.1242/jeb.163543. ISSN 0022-0949. PMID 28679788.
  6. ^ "Lulu Cambronne Named 2020 Pew Biomedical Scholar | College of Natural Sciences". cns.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
  7. ^ "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
  8. ^ a b c d admin (2014-11-10). "Harvard biologist Lauren O'Connell among winners of science fellowship". Cambridge Day. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  9. ^ "Changing the Face of STEM". L'Oréal. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
  10. ^ "Toxin Sponges May Protect Poisonous Frogs and Birds From Their Own Poisons, Study Suggests". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  11. ^ "Society for the Study of Evolution". www.evolutionsociety.org. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
  12. ^ a b University, Stanford (2019-11-21). "Motherly poison frogs shed light on maternal brain". Stanford News. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  13. ^ a b Jones, Benji (2021-05-26). "These frogs need poison to survive. Humans are messing with their supply". Vox. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  14. ^ "Why poison frogs don't poison themselves". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  15. ^ "Mystery solved: How poison frogs store their toxins without harming themselves". Earth.com. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
  16. ^ "Parenting lessons from frogs and spiders | Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute". neuroscience.stanford.edu. 2023-10-23. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
  17. ^ Giller, Geoffrey (2023-04-24). "Mysteries of the poisonous amphibians". Knowable Magazine. doi:10.1146/knowable-042423-2.
  18. ^ Moskowitz, Nora A.; Dorritie, Barbara; Fay, Tammy; Nieves, Olivia C.; Vidoudez, Charles; 2017 Biology Class, Cambridge Rindge Latin; 2017 Biotechnology Class, Masconomet; Fischer, Eva K.; Trauger, Sunia A.; Coloma, Luis A.; Donoso, David A.; O’Connell, Lauren A. (2020-01-01). "Land use impacts poison frog chemical defenses through changes in leaf litter ant communities". Neotropical Biodiversity. 6 (1): 75–87. Bibcode:2020NeBio...6...75M. doi:10.1080/23766808.2020.1744957.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ Alvarez-Buylla, Aurora; Fischer, Marie-Therese; Moya Garzon, Maria Dolores; Rangel, Alexandra E; Tapia, Elicio E; Tanzo, Julia T; Soh, H Tom; Coloma, Luis A; Long, Jonathan Z; O'Connell, Lauren A (2023-12-19). "Binding and sequestration of poison frog alkaloids by a plasma globulin". eLife. 12. doi:10.7554/eLife.85096. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 10783871. PMID 38206862.
  20. ^ Miles, Molly (27 May 2020). "2020 McKnight Scholar Awards". McKnight Foundation.
  21. ^ Than, Ker. "Lauren O'Connell receives New Innovator Award | Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences". humsci.stanford.edu.
  22. ^ "Lauren O'Connell". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  23. ^ "Society of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology". SBN. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  24. ^ "Hellman Fellows Fund" (PDF). Hellman Fellows. 2020. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  25. ^ "Lauren O'Connell's Profile | Stanford Profiles". profiles.stanford.edu.
  26. ^ "2019 Awardees | NIH Common Fund". commonfund.nih.gov.
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