CHEMICAL SIGNALING IN LIZARDS
Stephanie M. Campos Research Lab
Villanova University
Stephanie M. Campos Research Lab
Villanova University
Latest News
05/17/23
The Chemical Signaling in Lizards (CSIL) lab will be accepting Master's research students for 2024 and undergraduate research students as early as January 2024. Please reach out if you are interested!
03/09/23
Thank you to Rutgers University's graduate program in Ecology and Evolution for hosting me as a graduate seminar speaker!
10/25/22
No, you don't have a lizard brain inside your human brain! Thanks to science journalist Hannah Thomasy for letting me vent to her about the Triune Brain Theory being "pretty much totally bogus" for this New York Times article on the social lives of lizards. They also cover my vasotocin research and its involvement in chemical communication in Anolis. Lizards lead rich lives as complex as our own. They engage in monogamy (with partnerships of up to 27 years having been documented; compare that to the average American marriage which lasts 7-8 years!), maternal care, homosexuality (one species is all female), and some live in large social groups. Read all about the social lives of lizards here.
08/01/22
Thank you for the opportunity to serve the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology for 3 additional years as the Program Officer for the Division of Animal Behavior! I will see you at SICB 2023 in Austin!
05/11/22
The Campos lab is moving to Villanova University this fall! I will be joining the Biology Department as an Assistant Professor in August and soon will be recruiting graduate (MS) and undergraduate researchers!
03/31/22
Congrats to Campos lab undergraduates, Anastasia Erley and Zoha Ashraf, for earning authorship on their first research publication! Coming soon to Brain, Behavior and Evolution, "Signaler’s vasotocin alters relationship between responder’s forebrain catecholamines and communication behavior in lizards (Anolis carolinensis)," part of a special issue in honor of the life and work of Walt Wilczynski.
05/04/21
My latest paper in the journal of Integrative and Comparative Biology is now available online and is entitled, "Chemical communication in lizards and a potential role for vasotocin in modulating social interactions." This review developed over the last 2-3 years, primarily during my postdoctoral research position with Walt Wilczynski's lab and with the help of an undergraduate researcher, Selma Belkasim.
03/31/21
Read about our latest research, "Evolutionary loss of a signalling colour is linked to increased response to conspecific chemicals," available now in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
02/03/21
Our newest publication entitled, "Composition and compound proportions affect the response to complex chemical signals in a spiny lizard" is available now in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Thanks to Cristina Romero-Diaz for leading this project! Read it here!
01/06/21
Thank you to Karen Maruska and Julie Butler for the invitation to present my research on hormonal modulation of chemosensory communication in lizards at SICB's symposium on Sending and Receiving Signals: Endocrine Modulation of Social Communication!
11/01/20
Thank you to Barney Schlinger for the invitation to present my work on the role of arginine vasotocin in modulating social interactions of green anoles at the Presidential "Hormones and Behavior" Symposium!
09/01/20
I began a position in the Department of Biology at Swarthmore College as a Visiting Assistant Professor.
07/28/20
How do visual and chemical signals impact gene expression in the brain of a receiver? Watch my collaborator, Dr. Cristina Romero-Diaz present our recent results from Sceloporus lizards at the Animal Behavior Virtual Conference.
07/03/20
I am pleased to announce my new position as Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology, with an emphasis on Animal Behavior and Neuroethology, at Swarthmore College.
06/09/20
In Memory of Walter Wilczynski 9/18/1952-6/9/2020
This week we have lost a true pioneer in neuroethology. Walt will be remembered for his kindness, his sense of humor, his ability to find any excuse to gather friends for a beer (often picking up the tab, even on his own birthday), and his love of running (even if 5K’s were just an excuse to gather friends for beer afterwards). Walt loved to share funny anecdotes about previous students and colleagues, the way a parent might bring up a funny thing their child said, allowing me to get to know his past mentees, even those I had never met. He had a remarkable way of distilling the very essence of a scientific study into a few choice words. He listened carefully, thought deeply, and spoke with a purpose. I will remember Walt for his commitment to diversity in science, which showed in the mentees he hired and trained, the organizations he supported, and the committees he joined. Walt never missed a chance to support me in work-life balance, and when I delivered to him the news that I had both been offered a job and become engaged, he said, “at this moment I’m more happy for you about the engagement than the job. It signifies life more than work. But happy is happy, and I’m glad to hear both news.” Walt supported me in my scientific endeavors. I told him I wanted to remove intact olfactory bulbs from green anoles, which he had never done and are typically cut off when dissecting the brain. Anole olfactory bulbs are connected to the telencephalon by a long narrow nerve tract that passes between the lizard’s eyes and is sandwiched between bony plates, quite different from the olfactory bulbs of the frogs he had experience dissecting. As members of the Wilczynski and Carruth labs stood over the microscope to examine the long nerve tract separating the olfactory bulbs from the rest of the brain, Walt furrowed his brow, looked around the room and said, “what the hell, who can I blame for this?” These moments, these shared experiences of being human, are the ones I hold dearest, and will carry on with me until my last breath. I miss you immensely, Walt, and this world is darker without you, but your legacy shines on.
06/05/20
My latest article on arginine vasotocin and chemical communication in anoles is featured in today's Anole Annals blog, written by yours truly. In the blog post, I give a brief and accessible overview of chemical communication in lizards. Go to https://www.anoleannals.org/ to see the post!
05/29/20
New article alert: "Arginine vasotocin impacts chemosensory behavior during social interactions of Anolis carolinensis lizards" out in Hormones and Behavior's August issue. This article discusses the role of the neuropeptide arginine vasotocin in stimulating chemical communication in green anoles. Yes, green anoles also use chemical communication!
04/23/20
Keep an eye out for my newest research article, "Volatile fatty acid and aldehyde abundances evolve with behavior and habitat temperature in lizards," coming soon to the Journal of Behavioral Ecology! We explored the volatile composition of femoral pore secretions collected from 12 species of Sceloporus lizards to determine if and how signal composition is associated with changes in species behavior and habitat temperature.
02/25/20
Work from a collaboration with the Martins lab at ASU postdoc, Cristina Romero-Diaz, has just been accepted for publication in Scientific Reports! "Structural identification, synthesis and biological activity of two volatile cyclic dipeptides in a terrestrial vertebrate," out soon.
01/13/20
Congratulations to Morgan Herrmann, Martins lab undergraduate researcher at ASU, on the acceptance of her first first author publication in Copeia on the strange eye-bulging behavior of lizards and its association with chemical communication!
01/07/20
Thanks to everyone that came to my talk at SICB in Austin!
11/21/19
I will be presenting research on vasotocin-mediated chemosensory behavior in Anolis carolinensis lizards at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Conference in Austin, TX, 1/7/2020. I hope to see you there!
08/11/19
Congrats to Wilczynski lab undergrad, Selma Belkasim, on her completion of the Brains & Behavior Summer Research Scholarship and her first poster presentation!
05/28/19
I will be giving a talk at the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology conference in a few weeks, hosted by my alma mater, Indiana University. My talk is during the Contributed Talks Symposium on June 22nd, and I will be discussing how arginine-vasotocin mediates chemical communication in Anolis carolinensis. See you then!
04/17/19
Congratulations to GSU undergraduate Selma Belkasim for being awarded a 2019 Brains & Behavior Summer Research Scholarship to conduct neuroethological research with Anolis carolinensis! Selma will continue her work in the Wilczynski lab while also engaging in professional development courses with a cohort of scholars.
03/14/19
Happy Brain Awareness month to Dr. Charles Few and his classes at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Atlanta. Thanks for the invite to discuss brain evolution and behavior with your classes.
12/03/18
Our new manuscript entitled, "Trade-offs between visual and chemical behavioral responses," is out now in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology!
11/02/18
We said farewell to Valentina today, an incredibly motivated, strong and competent graduate student that came to work with the Wilczynski lab for a few months.
08/10/18
I will be at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology meeting in Minneapolis this week, presenting a talk Tuesday, "Gauging Engagement." Find me at the meeting or on Twitter @neuroStephtide
08/01/18
I am in Atlanta now! This month I begin a research position as a Next Generation Postdoctoral Scholar at Georgia State University's Neuroscience Institute and the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, working with Dr. Walt Wilczynski.
07/20/18
I will be presenting a talk on chemosensory investigation of specific compounds in socially-relevant chemical signals produced by Sceloporus lizards (a collaborative project) at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology meeting in Minneapolis this August 11-16th! See you there!
07/09/18
Defended PhD thesis, and am officially a Dr. of Evolution, Ecology & Behavior! Thank you to my committee for all of their efforts in shaping my research: Dr. Emilia Martins, Dr. Greg Demas, Dr. Ellen Ketterson, Dr. Troy Smith, and Dr. Helena Soini.
04/13/18
Presented at IU Center for Integrative Study of Animal Behavior's annual Animal Behavior Conference: "Relative abundances of a potential-pheromone in lizard chemical signals impact chemosensory interest in adult males."
03/14/18
A collaboration I became involved with as a student during the Marine Biological Laboratory's Neurobiology course last summer was just accepted to eLife! The manuscript entitled, "The signaling lipid sphingosine 1-phosphate regulates mechanical pain" will be available soon.
01/03-01/08/18
Shared my work on phylogenetic relationships with chemical signal composition in Sceloporus lizards at the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) 2018 in lovely San Francisco, CA.
10/23/17
Another successful Science Fest 2017 at IU Bloomington. Kids and families learned about lizard olfaction, from odor molecules to brains to behavior.
10/9 -10/19/17
Visit to the Martins lab at Arizona State University for a new collaboration on odor playbacks.
10/6-10/9/17
In the Chiricahua Mountains looking for the fall breeding S. jarrovii
6/1/17 - 8/1/17
In Woods Hole, Massachusetts at the Marine Biological Laboratory as a member of the Neurobiology 2017 cohort.
05/17/23
The Chemical Signaling in Lizards (CSIL) lab will be accepting Master's research students for 2024 and undergraduate research students as early as January 2024. Please reach out if you are interested!
03/09/23
Thank you to Rutgers University's graduate program in Ecology and Evolution for hosting me as a graduate seminar speaker!
10/25/22
No, you don't have a lizard brain inside your human brain! Thanks to science journalist Hannah Thomasy for letting me vent to her about the Triune Brain Theory being "pretty much totally bogus" for this New York Times article on the social lives of lizards. They also cover my vasotocin research and its involvement in chemical communication in Anolis. Lizards lead rich lives as complex as our own. They engage in monogamy (with partnerships of up to 27 years having been documented; compare that to the average American marriage which lasts 7-8 years!), maternal care, homosexuality (one species is all female), and some live in large social groups. Read all about the social lives of lizards here.
08/01/22
Thank you for the opportunity to serve the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology for 3 additional years as the Program Officer for the Division of Animal Behavior! I will see you at SICB 2023 in Austin!
05/11/22
The Campos lab is moving to Villanova University this fall! I will be joining the Biology Department as an Assistant Professor in August and soon will be recruiting graduate (MS) and undergraduate researchers!
03/31/22
Congrats to Campos lab undergraduates, Anastasia Erley and Zoha Ashraf, for earning authorship on their first research publication! Coming soon to Brain, Behavior and Evolution, "Signaler’s vasotocin alters relationship between responder’s forebrain catecholamines and communication behavior in lizards (Anolis carolinensis)," part of a special issue in honor of the life and work of Walt Wilczynski.
05/04/21
My latest paper in the journal of Integrative and Comparative Biology is now available online and is entitled, "Chemical communication in lizards and a potential role for vasotocin in modulating social interactions." This review developed over the last 2-3 years, primarily during my postdoctoral research position with Walt Wilczynski's lab and with the help of an undergraduate researcher, Selma Belkasim.
03/31/21
Read about our latest research, "Evolutionary loss of a signalling colour is linked to increased response to conspecific chemicals," available now in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
02/03/21
Our newest publication entitled, "Composition and compound proportions affect the response to complex chemical signals in a spiny lizard" is available now in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Thanks to Cristina Romero-Diaz for leading this project! Read it here!
01/06/21
Thank you to Karen Maruska and Julie Butler for the invitation to present my research on hormonal modulation of chemosensory communication in lizards at SICB's symposium on Sending and Receiving Signals: Endocrine Modulation of Social Communication!
11/01/20
Thank you to Barney Schlinger for the invitation to present my work on the role of arginine vasotocin in modulating social interactions of green anoles at the Presidential "Hormones and Behavior" Symposium!
09/01/20
I began a position in the Department of Biology at Swarthmore College as a Visiting Assistant Professor.
07/28/20
How do visual and chemical signals impact gene expression in the brain of a receiver? Watch my collaborator, Dr. Cristina Romero-Diaz present our recent results from Sceloporus lizards at the Animal Behavior Virtual Conference.
07/03/20
I am pleased to announce my new position as Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology, with an emphasis on Animal Behavior and Neuroethology, at Swarthmore College.
06/09/20
In Memory of Walter Wilczynski 9/18/1952-6/9/2020
This week we have lost a true pioneer in neuroethology. Walt will be remembered for his kindness, his sense of humor, his ability to find any excuse to gather friends for a beer (often picking up the tab, even on his own birthday), and his love of running (even if 5K’s were just an excuse to gather friends for beer afterwards). Walt loved to share funny anecdotes about previous students and colleagues, the way a parent might bring up a funny thing their child said, allowing me to get to know his past mentees, even those I had never met. He had a remarkable way of distilling the very essence of a scientific study into a few choice words. He listened carefully, thought deeply, and spoke with a purpose. I will remember Walt for his commitment to diversity in science, which showed in the mentees he hired and trained, the organizations he supported, and the committees he joined. Walt never missed a chance to support me in work-life balance, and when I delivered to him the news that I had both been offered a job and become engaged, he said, “at this moment I’m more happy for you about the engagement than the job. It signifies life more than work. But happy is happy, and I’m glad to hear both news.” Walt supported me in my scientific endeavors. I told him I wanted to remove intact olfactory bulbs from green anoles, which he had never done and are typically cut off when dissecting the brain. Anole olfactory bulbs are connected to the telencephalon by a long narrow nerve tract that passes between the lizard’s eyes and is sandwiched between bony plates, quite different from the olfactory bulbs of the frogs he had experience dissecting. As members of the Wilczynski and Carruth labs stood over the microscope to examine the long nerve tract separating the olfactory bulbs from the rest of the brain, Walt furrowed his brow, looked around the room and said, “what the hell, who can I blame for this?” These moments, these shared experiences of being human, are the ones I hold dearest, and will carry on with me until my last breath. I miss you immensely, Walt, and this world is darker without you, but your legacy shines on.
06/05/20
My latest article on arginine vasotocin and chemical communication in anoles is featured in today's Anole Annals blog, written by yours truly. In the blog post, I give a brief and accessible overview of chemical communication in lizards. Go to https://www.anoleannals.org/ to see the post!
05/29/20
New article alert: "Arginine vasotocin impacts chemosensory behavior during social interactions of Anolis carolinensis lizards" out in Hormones and Behavior's August issue. This article discusses the role of the neuropeptide arginine vasotocin in stimulating chemical communication in green anoles. Yes, green anoles also use chemical communication!
04/23/20
Keep an eye out for my newest research article, "Volatile fatty acid and aldehyde abundances evolve with behavior and habitat temperature in lizards," coming soon to the Journal of Behavioral Ecology! We explored the volatile composition of femoral pore secretions collected from 12 species of Sceloporus lizards to determine if and how signal composition is associated with changes in species behavior and habitat temperature.
02/25/20
Work from a collaboration with the Martins lab at ASU postdoc, Cristina Romero-Diaz, has just been accepted for publication in Scientific Reports! "Structural identification, synthesis and biological activity of two volatile cyclic dipeptides in a terrestrial vertebrate," out soon.
01/13/20
Congratulations to Morgan Herrmann, Martins lab undergraduate researcher at ASU, on the acceptance of her first first author publication in Copeia on the strange eye-bulging behavior of lizards and its association with chemical communication!
01/07/20
Thanks to everyone that came to my talk at SICB in Austin!
11/21/19
I will be presenting research on vasotocin-mediated chemosensory behavior in Anolis carolinensis lizards at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Conference in Austin, TX, 1/7/2020. I hope to see you there!
08/11/19
Congrats to Wilczynski lab undergrad, Selma Belkasim, on her completion of the Brains & Behavior Summer Research Scholarship and her first poster presentation!
05/28/19
I will be giving a talk at the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology conference in a few weeks, hosted by my alma mater, Indiana University. My talk is during the Contributed Talks Symposium on June 22nd, and I will be discussing how arginine-vasotocin mediates chemical communication in Anolis carolinensis. See you then!
04/17/19
Congratulations to GSU undergraduate Selma Belkasim for being awarded a 2019 Brains & Behavior Summer Research Scholarship to conduct neuroethological research with Anolis carolinensis! Selma will continue her work in the Wilczynski lab while also engaging in professional development courses with a cohort of scholars.
03/14/19
Happy Brain Awareness month to Dr. Charles Few and his classes at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Atlanta. Thanks for the invite to discuss brain evolution and behavior with your classes.
12/03/18
Our new manuscript entitled, "Trade-offs between visual and chemical behavioral responses," is out now in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology!
11/02/18
We said farewell to Valentina today, an incredibly motivated, strong and competent graduate student that came to work with the Wilczynski lab for a few months.
08/10/18
I will be at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology meeting in Minneapolis this week, presenting a talk Tuesday, "Gauging Engagement." Find me at the meeting or on Twitter @neuroStephtide
08/01/18
I am in Atlanta now! This month I begin a research position as a Next Generation Postdoctoral Scholar at Georgia State University's Neuroscience Institute and the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, working with Dr. Walt Wilczynski.
07/20/18
I will be presenting a talk on chemosensory investigation of specific compounds in socially-relevant chemical signals produced by Sceloporus lizards (a collaborative project) at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology meeting in Minneapolis this August 11-16th! See you there!
07/09/18
Defended PhD thesis, and am officially a Dr. of Evolution, Ecology & Behavior! Thank you to my committee for all of their efforts in shaping my research: Dr. Emilia Martins, Dr. Greg Demas, Dr. Ellen Ketterson, Dr. Troy Smith, and Dr. Helena Soini.
04/13/18
Presented at IU Center for Integrative Study of Animal Behavior's annual Animal Behavior Conference: "Relative abundances of a potential-pheromone in lizard chemical signals impact chemosensory interest in adult males."
03/14/18
A collaboration I became involved with as a student during the Marine Biological Laboratory's Neurobiology course last summer was just accepted to eLife! The manuscript entitled, "The signaling lipid sphingosine 1-phosphate regulates mechanical pain" will be available soon.
01/03-01/08/18
Shared my work on phylogenetic relationships with chemical signal composition in Sceloporus lizards at the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) 2018 in lovely San Francisco, CA.
10/23/17
Another successful Science Fest 2017 at IU Bloomington. Kids and families learned about lizard olfaction, from odor molecules to brains to behavior.
10/9 -10/19/17
Visit to the Martins lab at Arizona State University for a new collaboration on odor playbacks.
10/6-10/9/17
In the Chiricahua Mountains looking for the fall breeding S. jarrovii
6/1/17 - 8/1/17
In Woods Hole, Massachusetts at the Marine Biological Laboratory as a member of the Neurobiology 2017 cohort.
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About StephanieNative Texan, born and raised. Current Assistant Professor at Villanova University. Spent two years at Swarthmore College as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology. Completed a NextGen Postdoc through the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience at Georgia State University in the Neuroscience Institute under PI Walt Wilczynski. Received a Ph.D. from Indiana University in Evolution, Ecology & Behavior under advisor Emília P. Martins in 2018, and a B.S. in Biology from University of Texas, Arlington in 2012.
Contact me: stephanie.campos@villanova.edu |