Andres Bendesky, MD, PhD

There are profound differences in behavior among individuals of a species and across species. Much effort has been devoted to the observation and theory of behavioral variation, but the molecular, genetic, and neurobiological mechanisms that generate and maintain such diversity are largely unknown. My lab studies the mechanisms of behavioral variation from genetic and neurobiological angles—by identifying specific genes involved and how they impact the brain, and by characterizing functional variation in neuronal circuits. We then analyze the common themes that emerge to describe the evolution of behavior.

Work in my lab focuses primarily on deer mice (genus Peromyscus), an excellent system to study natural variation in behavior because (1) there is a large diversity of behavior within and among species and many of these species are interfertile, permitting forward genetic analyses; (2) the genome of multiple Peromyscus species has been sequenced; (3) Peromyscus is diverged from laboratory mice and rats, providing an opportunity to discover biological features that differ from traditional model species; nonetheless, many tools developed for laboratory mice and rats also work in Peromyscus; and (4) Peromyscus mice can breed in the laboratory in the same conditions as laboratory mice, allowing us to perform controlled experiments.

In addition to our primary work in Peromyscus mice, we harness behavioral variation in other vertebrates—including fish and birds—to uncover the molecular, genetic and neurobiological mechanisms that drive behavioral evolution.