Akinobu Watanabe
New York Institute of Technology, NY·Ecology & Evolution·Early-career
Body parts do not grow or evolve in isolation. In congenital hydrocephalus, extra fluid enlarges a baby's brain, and the skull swells around it, showing how one tissue can reshape another.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Biology
- Topics
evo-devo
evolutionary developmental biology
craniofacial development
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2027
What they work on
- Measure how brain and skull shapes have influenced each other's evolution across more than 350 bird species, using CT imaging of collection specimens and high-density 3D shape analysis.
- Test how the developing brain and skull shape each other by comparing embryos of two chicken breeds, one with an unusual brain and skull, using in vivo embryology experiments.
- Visualize brain–skull interactions from subcellular to whole-head scales with fluorescence microscopy and CT imaging, and model how these interactions produce new anatomical forms.
More about the research
Yet most studies of anatomy treat each tissue as separate. Large evolutionary studies have also found that ecology and function explain only a small share of how varied animal shapes are. This project asks whether interactions between structures, here the brain and the skull of birds, help explain how new and diverse anatomical forms arise over evolutionary and developmental time.
Why it matters
This work could show how interactions between tissues, rather than adaptation alone, help produce the diversity of animal shapes, adding to understanding of how the brain and skull evolve and develop together. Because conditions such as congenital hydrocephalus involve the brain reshaping the skull, insights into brain–skull interactions may eventually inform how such anatomical changes are understood.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jacob Suissa
University of Tennessee-Knoxville, TN·Ecology & Evolution
Test the Drought-Driven Hypothesis by measuring how vulnerable fern leaves, rhizomes and roots are to drought-induced embolism, the air blockages in water-conducting tubes, and linking this to vascular anatomy at architectural, tissue and cellular scales.
Nicholas Mason
Louisiana State University, LA·Ecology & Evolution·Early-career
Sequence whole genomes from populations of about 30 bird species in Andean Polylepis forests and grasslands to measure how connected populations are across isolated forest patches.
Glenna Clifton
University of Portland, OR·Ecology & Evolution
Measure bone dimensions and toe splay across many duck species, using CT scans of museum specimens, to find evolutionary patterns in foot skeleton shape.
The school
New York Institute of Technology: 4 labs on PI Pages, $7M a year on research, 34 research doctorates a year.
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