ABGG Seminar: Maxine Zylberberg, Friday at 12:10 in 6 Olson Hall

This week’s Animal Behavior Graduate Group seminar (last of the quarter):

Dr. Maxine Zylberberg

California Academy of Sciences

ABGG Exit Seminar: Disease Defense Strategies: Linking Behavior, Immune Function and Disease Ecology in Galápagos Finches and House Finches

Friday, March 16, 12:10 in 6 Olson Hall

Coffee and cookies will be available

From Maxine’s website:

Research Interests: I take a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of disease ecology, drawing from the fields of ethology, behavioral ecology, and immunology to inform my study of disease dynamics in wild bird populations. I am particularly interested in how host behavior at both the individual and group level affects disease dynamics across a variety of geographical and temporal scales, from seasonal disease dynamics, to small and large scale geographic variation in disease prevalence, to evolution of pathogen virulence. My dissertation work focused on the ecology of avian pox in Galapagos finches, in particular annual variation in prevalence and recovery rates, and the importance of both behavior and immunology as underlying drivers of disease dynamics. In addition, I used house finches as a model system to study the relationship between individual behavior and immune function in captivity. I have participated in a number of collaborative projects in the fields of disease ecology and conservation, examining seasonal variation in the physiology of a nomadic species (red crossbills) and parasite load, the ecological correlates of long term variation in malarial parasites of mountain white-crowned sparrows, the inclusion of local experts in biological research, and best methods in conservation management practices.

Publications:

Wang D, Coscoy L, Zylberberg M, Avila PC, Boushey HA, Ganem D, DeRisi JL. Microarray-based detection and genotyping of viral pathogens. (2002) Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99(24), 15687-92

Cornelius J. M.; Zylberberg M.; Breuner C. W.; et al. 2006 Reproductive status and hematozoan parasite load in the opportunistically breeding and nomadic red crossbill, Loxia curvirostra. Integrative and Comparative Biology, Volume: 46: E182-E182

Cornelius J. M.; Zylberberg M.; Breuner C. W.; et al. 2009. Stress physiology and parasite burden differ during winter and summer breeding in a north-temperate zone temporal opportunist, the red crossbill Loxia curvirostra Integrative and Comparative Biology, 49: E37-E37

Elbroch, L., Mwampamba, T., Santos, M., Zylberberg, M., Liebenberg, L., Minye, J.,Mosser, C.,Reddy, E. 2011. The value, limitations and challenges of employing local experts in conservation research. Conservation Biology, 25: 1195-1202

Santos, M., Zylberberg, M., Reddy, E. Testing for conservation transferability in the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. (submitted) Biological Conservation

Deiner, K., Forrester, T.,Grof-Tisza, P., Santos, M. J., Souza, L., Wilkerson, M. L., Zylberberg, M., Schwartz, M. W. Conservation management frameworks: the what, where and how of managing biodiversity. (submitted). Journal of Environmental Management

Author: Jonathan Eisen

I am an evolutionary biologist and a Professor at U. C. Davis. (see my lab site here). My research focuses on the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate). To study this I focus on sequencing and analyzing genomes of organisms, especially microbes and using phylogenomic analysis View all posts by Jonathan Eisen