Research Themes

Organismal Resilience

Resilience emerges from the interaction of genetic, cellular, and physiological processes. Bats experience extreme metabolic swings from flight and torpor, and their ability to buffer these fluctuations makes them powerful models for understanding how tissues tolerate stress and how organismal resilience supports long-term species stability.

Dietary Diversity

Phyllostomid bats mirror the order-level diversity of mammals, offering a powerful model for how diet drives evolutionary change. Their diverse foraging and feeding behaviors reveal specialized adaptations in nutrient acquisition that allow them to withstand environmental challenges, including exposure to dietary toxins.

Immunometabolism

Bats demonstrate how metabolic pathways and immune function work together to regulate inflammation and maintain health. Their physiology amplifies the stabilizing roles of structural and signaling lipids seen across mammals, creating a powerful model for immunometabolic resilience.

Nutrient Signaling

Bats show forms of vocal communication that parallel traits important for studying language, including social vocal learning, structured calls, and, in some species, song. Combined with long parental care, memory, and complex social systems, their diversity lets us examine how metabolism supports the evolution of complex behaviors across mammals.

Field Sites and Remote Research

  • Trinidad team

  • Alexa in Bush Bush Sanctuary, Trinidad

  • Bat bar

  • Richard and Rochelle at Mt. Tamana, Trinidad

  • Mobile lab in Belize

  • Andrea using cutlass in Trinidad