Christine R. Lattin, PhD
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clattin.bsky.social
Christine R. Lattin, PhD
@clattin.bsky.social
1.5K followers 1.3K following 88 posts
Associate Professor at LSU trying to understand how hormones & neurotransmitters help wild animals successfully cope with environmental challenges. She/her
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clattin.bsky.social
Roseate spoonbills on the @lsu.bsky.social lake!
October 23, 2025 at 4:33 PM
clattin.bsky.social
Bird-safe glass on the new @lsuscience.bsky.social Interdisciplinary Science Building! The repeated 2 inch vertical pattern should help minimize window collisions 🥰🐦‍⬛🪟
A photo of a window in the LSU Our Lady of the Lake Interdisciplinary Science Building, showing bird safe glass with a repeating pattern of black vertical stripes
October 16, 2025 at 5:34 PM
clattin.bsky.social
I’m loving the @lsumns.bsky.social new “Art After Dark” series! Last night I learned how @lsu.bsky.social Art & Design Professor Leslie Koptcho is making paper out of invasive plants, and using them as inspiration for her printmaking 😍🌱📃🖼️🧪
Paper samples made by out of plants that are invasive in Louisiana, including mimosa, alligator weed, Japanese climbing fern and water hyacinth. LSU College of Art and Design Professor Leslie Koptcho with a print she made of water lettuce, an invasive species in Louisiana
October 3, 2025 at 4:04 PM
clattin.bsky.social
The lab’s research on house sparrows & Eurasian tree sparrows is featured in Chapter 2 of David Stipp’s new non-fiction book, “Why Rats Laugh and Jellyfish Sleep: And Other Enchanting Stories of Evolution," available September 23: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/david... 🤩🐦📖🧪
The cover of David Stipp's new book, "Why Rats Laugh & Jellyfish Sleep: And Other Enchanting Stories of Evolution," showing Charles Darwin sitting on a jellyfish. A photo of page 56 of "Why Rats Laugh & Jellyfish Sleep," which references house sparrow and Eurasian tree sparrow research done by the Lattin Lab.
September 16, 2025 at 6:06 PM
clattin.bsky.social
"Once you get to the top, you get to ski all the way back down the mountain!" Read @lsubiosci.bsky.social PhD student @jacobcarignan.bsky.social's interview with Quantitative Ecologist Michelle Stantial about her ski mountaineering hobby:
thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...
Michelle and a friend sitting under the moonlight on the side of Mount Shasta. They started their climb that morning at 3 am! Photo courtesy of Michelle Stantial.
September 15, 2025 at 2:14 PM
clattin.bsky.social
"I got all my friends and family to come out and see me being Anne of Cleves! That was great." @lsubiosci.bsky.social PhD student @ezekielbmartin.bsky.social interviews @westernu.ca Biology Professor @bethmacshack.bsky.social about her show choir hobby: thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...
Beth MacDougall-Shackleton and the Silver Spotlight Players performing “Shakin’ at the High School Hop” from Grease: The Musical. Photo courtesy of Beth MacDougall-Shackleton.
July 16, 2025 at 9:17 PM
clattin.bsky.social
"This campaign wasn't written by biologists...I have to come up on the fly with a reason why it makes sense to somebody who knows about genetics." @lsumns.bsky.social PhD student @harveyyamanda.bsky.social interviews Quinn McCallum about his RPG & miniatures hobbies: thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...
Quinn working on painting a miniature. (Photo credit: Amanda Harvey).
July 7, 2025 at 7:36 PM
clattin.bsky.social
"I've snapped tendons in my hands, which meant long recovery periods...those moments taught me patience." @urigso.bsky.social Oceanographer Kelton McMahon talking about his rock climbing hobby with @lsubiosci.bsky.social PhD student Yasodha Gamage on our class blog: thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...
Kelton sport climbing in Thailand as an Assistant Professor. Photo credit: Mac McMahon.
June 14, 2025 at 12:05 AM
clattin.bsky.social
I had an awesome morning at the #postersatcapitolLA25 event today! I really enjoyed chatting with Louisiana’s best and brightest undergrad researchers @lsu.bsky.social & 11 other LaURA organizations on how their important work helps their local communities, our state, country & world 🥹🧪
LSU researcher Jena Bordelon chats with LSU Interim President Dr. Matt Lee about her research on improving the food environment in Louisiana schools. Researchers talk to legislators, faculty, and visitors at the end of the morning session at the Louisiana Undergraduate Research Association (LaURA) Posters at the Capitol 2025 event.
June 10, 2025 at 12:01 AM
clattin.bsky.social
"I had the choice of getting a driver’s license for a moped or a sailboat, and of course I went for the boat." Read more about @lsubiosci.bsky.social PhD student Jackson Ferber's interview with @katharinahoff.bsky.social about her sailing hobby here: thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...
Katharina and her daughter, Hanna, sailing. Photo courtesy of Mario Stanke.
June 3, 2025 at 5:08 PM
clattin.bsky.social
The lab was recognized for outstanding research & teaching at this year's @lsuscience.bsky.social awards! Danna Masri won the Undergraduate Research Award from @lsubiosci.bsky.social, former PhD student Melanie Kimball the Distinguished Dissertation Award, & I received a Graduate Teaching Award ❤️
Undergraduate Danna Masri receives the Undergraduate Teaching Award from the LSU Department of Biological Sciences and Dr. Christine Lattin receives the Graduate Teaching Award from the LSU College of Science.
May 28, 2025 at 9:37 PM
clattin.bsky.social
"Everybody who has a voice can sing. One of the big takeaways is that anyone can do it; we are all born with this natural ability to sing." Read @lsuvetmed.bsky.social PhD student Kimia Nourozi's interview with @prolactingrl.bsky.social‬ about her hobbies here: thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...
Kristina Smiley sings karaoke at the Majestic in Northampton Massachusetts. Photo courtesy of Kristina Smiley.
May 27, 2025 at 10:49 PM
clattin.bsky.social
Our new collaborative paper (led by former undergrad Kenedi Lynch) found very high avian malaria rates in Louisiana wild turkeys, suggesting the parasites may be one reason turkeys have declined locally @lsubiosci.bsky.social: meridian.allenpress.com/avian-diseas... 🦟🦃🔬🧪
Data from Lynch et al. 2025 showing that only 2% of all turkeys sampled (out of 106 total) were free from all avian malaria infections. 8% had Leucocytozoon, Haemoproteus, and Plasmodium, 30% had two strains of malaria, and 60% were infected with a single strain of malaria.
May 27, 2025 at 5:34 PM
clattin.bsky.social
A new paper from the lab led by Blake Dusang & @marquisehenry.bsky.social builds on past work & finds not all "neophobia" tests measure the same trait. Specifically, responses to novel objects & novel environments were not consistent within individuals: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
This image gives the background for the Dusang and Henry 2025 paper. The image reads: "Neophobia is often evaluated in only one context. Assumed that an animal's response to one type of novel stimulus is consistent with another". There are three images, one of a food dish with yellow coiled pipe cleaners with the label "novel objects," one of a house sparrow taking a potato chip from a bowl with the label "novel foods," and one of a city landscape with office towers with the label "novel environments." Double-headed arrows connect all three images.
May 25, 2025 at 10:33 PM
clattin.bsky.social
Three lab members presented their research on physiology and behavior at the LSU Discover Day conference a few weeks ago, and they all did a fabulous job! @lsudiscover.bsky.social @lsubiosci.bsky.social 👩🏻‍🔬🐦🦎🧫🧪
Undergraduate researcher Danna Masri presents work on links between neophobia and other behaviors in sparrows Postbacc scholar Elena Liebl presents research on links between color and behavior in anoles Undergraduate researcher Caroline Henry with her poster on captivity-induced changes in the microbiome of lizards.
May 16, 2025 at 7:41 PM
clattin.bsky.social
Congratulations to Sara Wang, who just defended her PhD dissertation in Oceanography on how ocean temperature variation affects foraging & physiology in 2 Peruvian seabirds! Sara ran feather corticosterone assays in my lab & I really enjoyed being on her committee @lsu.bsky.social 🥰🪶🧪
Sara Wang gives a talk summarizing her PhD dissertation research
May 15, 2025 at 3:27 PM
clattin.bsky.social
Three amazing @lsubiosci.bsky.social undergraduate researchers, Ilea Kuo, Hermione Lam, and Danna Masri, defended Senior Honors Theses from the lab this year! They will all be going on to medical school, and I know their research experiences will make them excellent evidence-based physicians 🥹🩺🥼🧪
Hermione Lam, Ilea Kuo, and Danna Masri Ilea Kuo defends her Senior Honors Thesis Hermione Lam defends her Senior Honors Thesis Danna Masri defends their Senior Honors Thesis
May 5, 2025 at 2:40 PM
clattin.bsky.social
Spotted on a recent walk around the LSU lakes 🐢
A snapping turtle on a path
April 28, 2025 at 11:24 PM
clattin.bsky.social
We previously showed corticosterone is involved in neophobia (novelty avoidance) in house sparrows; my students @marquisehenry.bsky.social & Melanie Kimball's new paper found this effect does not appear to be mediated via low-affinity glucocorticoid receptors: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/NMYI9B...
Survival curves of sparrows' latency to feed in the presence of novel objects with and without injections of a vehicle control (top graph) or the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU486 (bottom graph). There was no difference between weeks or treatments, suggesting the effects of corticosterone on neophobia that we previously observed are mediated via a different physiological mechanism.
April 21, 2025 at 7:47 PM
clattin.bsky.social
Did you know there is a leaf cutter ant native to the southeastern US? Atta texana, the Texas leaf cutter ant, is found from Louisiana to Mexico, and can form massive colonies of millions of ants! Like tropical leaf cutter ants, they use plant material to “farm” a fungus that they eat 🍄‍🟫 🍃 🐜
Large anthill from a Texas leaf cutter ant colony seen in Kisatchie National Forest
March 26, 2025 at 3:05 PM
clattin.bsky.social
Baby longleaf pines are so cute and silly! I was happy to see these lil’ guys on our hike as I’m also reading Janisse Ray’s excellent “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood” (which features them prominently) 💚
A very small long leaf pine (which just looks like a tuft of green wires) A slightly bigger longleaf pine (which looks like a stick with green wires hanging off of it)
March 24, 2025 at 2:13 PM
clattin.bsky.social
Another highlight from yesterday’s hike in the Kisatchie National Forest: dwarf sundew carnivorous plants! (This one has captured a teeny tiny beetle.)
A red dwarf sundew carnivorous plant with a tiny black beetle stuck to it
March 23, 2025 at 4:25 PM
clattin.bsky.social
Wild azaleas are blooming in Kisatchie National Forest! They look & smell so good 😍
Photo of pink wild azalea flowers in front of a forest backdrop
March 22, 2025 at 11:29 PM
clattin.bsky.social
A few of my lab members & I helped out at Kids' Day at the Museum at the @lsumns.bsky.social a few weeks back, teaching local 4th-6th graders about neurobiology and the kinds of research we do in our lab @lsubiosci.bsky.social @lsuscience.bsky.social ❤️💪🧪
Lattin Lab PhD student Marquise Henry uses arm wrestling to show nerve impulses in an active muscle via electromyography Lattin Lab PhD student Katie Stewart shows how electrical impulses can be converted into sound waves using a small device
March 8, 2025 at 11:18 PM
clattin.bsky.social
The #SICB Division of Botany needs a new Student/Postdoc Representative to work with their Division & @sicb-spdac.bsky.social to coordinate student/postdoc events for the annual meeting & during the academic year. If you know any students or postdocs who might be interested, please let me know!
Award-winning SPDAC sticker design by SICB member and graduate student Joseph Wu.
January 2, 2025 at 1:52 AM