Visiting Hibernation Biologists
Dr. Brian M. Barnes, PhD is Director of the Institute for Arctic Biology at University of Alaska Fairbanks, and one of the world leaders in characterizing the adaptive strategies employed by various hibernators to withstand environmental extremes, both by studying their behavior and physiology in the wild, as well as through a variety of molecular tools including high-dimensional 'omic' profiling. More recently, he has collaborated with Duke investigators on surgical applications of induced hibernation for organ protection. The title of his talk is "Overwintering in the Arctic: animal strategies for surviving the long cold and dark". Dr. Jun Yan, PhD is the Group Leader at the Partners Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and has made particular contributions to genomic analysis of two hibernating mammals - the Arctic ground squirrel and the American black bear - which would be the topic of his talk. Please join us for this exciting two-part session!