The Solomon-Lane Lab is an integrative neuroscience and behavior lab in the Keck Science Department at Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges. We are a welcoming, collaborative research group interested in understanding social behavior, hormones, and neural mechanisms. Our model system is the highly social fish, Burton’s Mouthbrooder. Take a look around to learn about the Lab and our research, and check back for updates!

Are you interested in applying to join the Lab? Send me an email! You do not need any previous research experience. Students from underrepresented groups in STEM are highly encouraged to apply.  

We are lucky to be starting our semester with a phenomenal seminar by Dr. Michele Johnson! Thanks for meeting with us, Michele!

#BlackInNeuro week begins today! We will be reading about and discussing racism in neuroscience, and STEM more broadly, attending the SfN Black Lives Matter and Neuroscience: Why This Moment Matters webinar, and engaging with and amplifying posts on social media. Making the Lab more accessible, inclusive, and diverse will also be a primary focus (this week forever into the future). Black Lives Matter.

Looking forward to attending the virtual Animal Behavior Society and Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience meetings this week! A huge thank you to the fantastic organizers!

Also, check out the brand new fry (baby fish) from our lab population of A. burtoni! Despite the strange and challenging summer, the fish are thriving!

We’re kicking off our second summer in the Lab! Undergraduate researchers Emily McCabe (Scripps), Claire Cantelon (Scripps), and Bela Harmon (Scripps) will be working virtually to analyze social behavior data collected by Emily and recent graduate Caity Kwun, as a part of her thesis, in Fall 2019. I can’t wait to see all that we learn and discover together this summer!

Congratulations to the very first graduates of the Solomon-Lane Lab! Wishing all the best to Caity Kwun (CMC), Hannah Graves (CMC), and Julia Weinstein (CMC)! Thank you to these phenomenal students and researchers for all they brought to me, our lab, and to scientific discovery!

Undergraduate researchers (left to right in picture below) Hannah Graves (CMC), Julia Weinstein (CMC), and Emily McCabe (Scripps) gave a fantastic presentation today at the Keck Brown Bag Lunch Series on their work: The effects of early-life socialization on behavior in a highly social fish. Thank you to all of the Keck researchers for attending and asking great questions!

We had a packed house today for the Early Career Workshop at the annual meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology! Thank you to my co-organizers Drs. Laura Been (Haverford College), Kelli Duncan (Vassar College), and Christina Ragan (Purdue University Northwest), along with all of the fantastic presenters. Check out our schedule here! I will also be presenting a research poster on Friday (June 21) from my postdoc research in the Hofmann Lab about the effects of vasopressin on juvenile cichlid social behavior and status.

The fish have finally arrived! Say hello to these young adult Burton’s Mouthbrooders (Astatotilapia burtoni), a highly social species of African cichlid. These fish traveled here from the Hofmann Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. The Solomon-Lane Lab will start research this summer with three talented undergraduate researchers!

Over the past few days, I had the privilege of working with this talented group of animal behavior researchers at Weaving the Future of Animal Behavior (WFAB). I’m thrilled to be a part of this community as we move forward in science and as scientists. A special thank you to the organizers – Drs. Emilia Martins and Claire Horner-Devine – and to all of our panelists!

Thank you to Scripps College for a warm welcome and this Faculty Spotlight! Check out my interview to learn about my research, how I became interested in studying social behavior, how critical I think diversity is to science, and three things that might surprise the Scripps community…

Go see graduate student Becca Butler present her poster “The Development of Social Status in a Highly Social Fish” (P1-161) at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in Tampa! Becca completed this work as an undergraduate researcher with me in the Hofmann Lab. While juvenile social behavior is quite similar to adults, and they can form status relationships, we show that the social “rules” differ from the adults. Becca also mastered intracerebroventricular injections and was able to alter social status by manipulating arginine vasotocin signaling.

Hello, California! I am thrilled to join the Keck Science Department at Claremont McKenna, Scripps, and Pitzer Colleges as an Assistant Professor of Biology. This semester, I’ll be teaching Systems Neuroscience and a Neuroscience Lab. Stay tuned for research to begin in my Lab with talented undergraduate students from the Claremont Colleges.

December 20, 2018

How to measure female reproductive success when multiple females lay eggs in the same nest? This science challenge had an unexpected solution: food coloring! The dye marks eggs in the fish’s ovary. When the female lays eggs in the male’s nest, they have colored yolks! Count each color to estimate female reproductive success. Learn how in my new preprint: A simple egg marking method for polygynous fishes.

Our new preprint “A tagging method for very small fish” describes how to mark fish as small as 1 cm long! Juvenile cichlids are hard to keep track of over time. This method makes it possible to study individuals as they develop!

Take a look at our poster “Professional development through evidence-based public engagement”. It shares our approach to public engagement and ‘how to’ recommendations about engaging effectively.

Thank you to the Pan American Neuroendocrine Society for the Travel Award to attend the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology / International Congress of Neuroendocrinology Conference this summer in Toronto! I will be presenting two posters, one on my cichlid research and one on my STEM public engagement work. I will also be leading a professional development workshop on how to engage effectively with the public.

I am excited to be speaking at the Spring Symposium in Brain, Behavior and Evolution at UT Austin on April 28th! The theme this year is behavioral epigenetics. Check out The Center for Brain, Behavior, and Evolution website for more information. Registration is FREE for UT folks!

At the 2017 meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, I met with a group of graduate students, postdocs, and faculty at the Workshop for Public Engagement and External Relations. I wrote a letter summarizing our work and goals for the future. Check it out to learn about the ways SBN scientists already engage with diverse publics and our vision for the role SBN has the power to play in increasing diversity, inclusion, and equity in STEM; building strong connections with local communities; increasing public trust in scientists and enthusiasm for science; and developing and participating in public engagement and science communication training. We look forward to broadening the scope of and participation in public engagement together!

My new preprint Early-life social environment alters juvenile behavior and neuroendocrine function in a highly social cichlid fish is now available on bioRxv! Early-life social environments and experiences shape adult behavior critical for evolutionary fitness and health. We show that rearing juvenile A. burtoni in different social environments – social groups or pairs – affects behavior across contexts and stress and sex steroid hormone gene expression. By investigating these early-life effects in juveniles, we can identify how developmental plasticity shapes the adult phenotype.

Check out my new blog post Workshop highlights! How public engagement (and science communication) is a social endeavor about the BEACON STEM public engagement workshop I led with Alexa Warwick and Travis Hagey at UT Austin!

Thank you to Michele Johnson and Jimmy Roberts for inviting me to give a Neuroscience Seminar at Trinity University! The students asked excellent questions, and it was great meeting faculty and touring the impressive new science building. I look forward to visiting again!

Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Lisa Paggeot on being awarded an Undergraduate Research Fellowship today for her project on the behavioral and neurotranscriptomic mechanisms driving social status transitions in Astatotilapia burtoni!

The second annual full-day BEACON Public Engagement Workshop at the University of Texas at Austin was a success! This year, we focused on building a public narrative to connect with your audience, Stephanie Chiarello Noppenberg discussed how to engage effectively with public policy makers, and Rep Donna Howard shared insights about serving in the Texas State House of Representatives. Special thanks to Rep Howard and Stephanie for sharing their experiences and expertise! Check out the workshop resources and our library guide page for more information.

I’m excited to share that I’ll be speaking at Nerd Nite Austin again! My talk is titled “Pork barrel science, or what biologists have learned from dressing animals in clothes.” Scientists go to great lengths for their research, but from the outside looking in, that research can appear ridiculous. (Remember the kerfuffle over shrimp treadmills?) But is science that appears wasteful actually a waste? Together, we will explore the world of seemingly-preposterous science by finding out what biologists have learned over the years from dressing animals in clothes. Nerd Nite starts at 8pm at The North Door. The event is FREE and open to the public. I hope to see you there!

Photo credit: Zoo Portraits

At the annual meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, I led the Public Engagement and External Relations Workshop with UCLA graduate student Yesenia Cabrera. Thank you to all of the undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and faculty who joined us to share the many ways they engage the public! We also strategized for the future, thinking about how SBN can further support the bold and innovative public engagement goals of its members. Thank you to the SBN organizers for including this productive session.

Innovative science is increasingly interdisciplinary. Pop-Up Institutes are a novel way to bring researchers from diverse disciplines together for a month of collaboration. I coordinated our Institute Seeing the Tree and the Forest: Understanding Individual and Population Variation in Biology, Medicine, and Society, which drew interest from researchers in biology, statistics, medicine, nutrition, public health, athletics, classics, anthropology, and more! Check out my BEACON blog posts to learn more about the Pop-Up Institute and the communication strategies we used to collaborate across disciplines. Go to our guide page, curated by Biosciences Librarian Porcia Vaughn, to learn more and find resources!

Undergraduate researchers Hareem Usmani (left) and Becca Butler (right) present their research at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. They did a fantastic job sharing their science! Both Becca and Hareem designed their projects and successfully applied for Undergraduate Research Fellowship funding to support their research. Congratulations!