The main focus of my lab is study of physiological processes during development in vertebrates. Even though a lot of developmental processes are very similar between species of vertebrates, there are many differences. This is why I like to use a comparative approach when designing experiments to tease out and describe these differences. Physiological variation is also a large topic in my lab. By examining variation during development, the plasticity of developmental processes can be studied, especially during environmental perturbations, such as hypoxia or temperature. Some seemingly fragile developmental systems are more resilient than you might think. The majority of the work in the lab focuses on the cardiovascular system during development in various environments including hypoxia. Currently, we use the zebrafish as our animal model but I have worked in various animal systems including snakes, lizards, amphibians, turtles, alligators, emus, and armadillos.