Douglas Blackiston
Research/Areas of Interest
Developmental Biology
Animal Behavior
Engineered Living Systems
Biorobotics
The overarching goal of my research program is to understand how developmental events coordinate organism-level behaviors, and how these interactions can inform both biomedical and ecological contexts. To this end, my group studies many aspects of developmental biology to learn about the molecular, genetic, and environmental signaling mechanisms driving behavioral phenotypes/disease, and then use these mechanisms to exert control over form and function, sensory-motor integration, and regenerative outcomes.
Education
- PhD, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., United States
Biography
Douglas Blackiston received his Ph.D. in Biology from Georgetown University and is currently an Assistant Professor at Tufts University and a Visiting Scholar at the Wyss Institute at Harvard, where his research program examines the relationship between developmental events and organism level behaviors. His work encompasses many diverse questions and models, from the ability of memory to survive metamorphosis in moths and butterflies, to the capacity of transplanted eyes to restore vision in blind animals. He is a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow, a Cozzarelli prize recipient, an Altmetric top 100 scientist, and his research has been featured as exhibits in numerous museums including the Design Museum of London, the CCCB, and the Copernicus Science Centre.