Principal Investigator
Christine Lattin, PhD - Dr. Lattin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and joined the LSU faculty in 2018. Dr. Lattin’s research examines hormones, the brain, and behavior in wild songbirds, in part to better understand the impacts of stress on humans and wildlife. Her research is currently funded by an NSF CAREER award that she received in 2023.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Tosha Kelly, PhD - Dr. Kelly is a Postdoctoral Researcher who joined the lab in 2019. She was a Merck Research Laboratories fellow with the Life Sciences Research Foundation from 2020-2023 and has additionally received several postdoctoral research grants and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Dorothy Skinner award in 2023. Her research focuses on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function and immunity during avian malaria infection.
Graduate Students
Marquise Henry (with his cat Poppy) - Marquise joined the lab as a PhD student in 2023. He is interested in the role of different neurotransmitters and brain regions in mediating neophobia behavior. Marquise is a Huel D. Perkins Fellow.
Melanie Kimball - Melanie joined the lab as a PhD student in 2019. Her research focuses on the neurobiology of cognitive traits like neophobia. Melanie has received several student research grants to support her work, and, most recently, received a P.E.O. Scholar Award and LSU Dissertation Year Fellowship to fund the final year of her dissertation research.
Keegan Stansberry - Keegan joined the lab as a PhD student in 2019. His research examines the effects of climate change on wild songbirds and the effects of developmental stress. Keegan’s research has been supported by several student grants, including LSU’s T. Vinton Holmes Ornithology Award.
Postbaccalaureate Researchers
Emily Stelling - Emily joined the lab as an NSF RaMP LAGNiAppE Postbaccalaureate Researcher in 2023. Emily’s research project is focused on the relationship between neophobia, environmental lead exposure, and invasiveness.
Undergraduate Researchers
Ella Cochran - Ella has been an Undergraduate Researcher in the lab since 2022. She is working on projects related to neophobia and transcriptomics.
Maggie Dunn - Maggie joined the Lattin Lab in fall 2023. She is working on projects related to avian malaria, and is part of the President’s Future Leaders in Research program at LSU.
Blake Dusang (with her cat Josie) - Blake has been an Undergraduate Researcher in the lab since 2023. She is working on projects examining neophobia in different species.
Will Frazier - Will has been an Undergraduate Researcher in the lab since 2023. He has worked on a variety of projects in the lab and field, most recently on spatial neophobia.
Caroline Henry (with her dog Roman) - Caroline joined the lab in fall 2023. She is part of the LSU President’s Future Leaders in Research program, and is investigating links between environmental lead exposure, physiology, and behavior.
Ilea Kuo - Ilea has been an Undergraduate Researcher in the lab since 2023. She is working on projects examining avian malaria in nestlings.
Kenedi Lynch - Kenedi has been an Undergraduate Researcher in the lab since 2020. She is a Stamps Scholar, part of the LSU President’s Future Leaders in Research program, a 2022 Amgen Scholar, and a 2023 Goldwater Scholar and Astronaut Scholar. Kenedi works on projects related to avian malaria in the lab, and is a co-author on one publication.
Danna Masri - Danna has been an Undergraduate Researcher in the lab since 2022. She is part of the LSU President’s Future Leaders in Research program, and is interested in links between neophobia and other cognitive and behavioral traits.
Past Lab Members
Raedan Stephens - Raedan was a member of the lab from 2021-2023, and was also involved in the LSU President’s Future Leaders in Research program. During his time in the lab, Raedan helped adapt new technologies, like RFID, to study behavior in birds in the wild.
Kevin Krajcir - Kevin was a graduate student in the lab from 2022-2023 and studied neophobia in Eurasian Tree Sparrows. He is currently Grants Coordinator for the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission.
Riley Noble (with her dogs Rosie and Harley) - Riley joined the lab in 2022 and graduated in spring 2023 as an LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher. Her Senior Honors Thesis examined whether the composition of the gut microbiome protects birds against disease.
Ayushi Patel - Ayushi joined the lab in 2022 and graduated in spring 2023 as an LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher. Her research in the lab focused on developing methods to visualize dopamine receptors in active neurons.
Allison Cannon (with her dog Cricket) - Allison joined the lab in 2020 and graduated in spring 2022. Her Senior Honors Thesis was about how the hormone corticosterone affects immune signaling. Allison is a co-author on one publication from the lab.
Kaitlin Couvillion - Kaitlin was an undergraduate researcher in the lab from 2018-2022. Her Senior Honors Thesis focused on the impacts of ectoparasites on nestling songbirds. She was a LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher and received the Charles S. McCleskey Memorial Endowed Scholarship in 2021 and the Socolofsky Scholarship in 2022. Kaitlin is a co-author on three publications from the lab.
Courtney Harding - Courtney joined the lab in 2021. She graduated in spring 2022 as an LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher. Courtney’s Senior Honors Thesis examined how estrogen affects the perception of environmental stressors and resulted in a scientific publication. Courtney was a Ronald E. McNair Research Scholar.
Abigail Vinson - Abby was an undergraduate researcher who worked in the lab from 2018 until she graduated in 2020 as an LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher. Abby’s Senior Honors Thesis was on the effects of personality traits and stress on the microbiome, which resulted in a scientific publication.