Ciencia Puerto Rico

We are interested in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying aggressive behavior and the establishment of dominance hierarchies in an invertebrate animal model, the freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii. At present, we are focusing our attention on the role played by biogenic amines such as serotonin, octopamine and dopamine in regulating these behaviors. Our experimental approaches include behavioral observation, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, cloning, Real-Time PCR and other molecular biology techniques.

We are also developing a new area of research in the laboratory, looking at the impact of anthropogenic changes in Puerto Rico´s urban rivers on behavior and underlying neural circuitry of freshwater fish and crustacean species. The long-term goal of the study is to determine how the effects of urbanization near river systems in Puerto Rico affect activity and interactive behaviors and the underlying neural circuitry of fish and crustacean species. To do this we collaborate with environmental scientists to collect water and sediment samples from identified rivers, and use techniques of GC/MS, atomic absorption, and ICP MS for chemical analysis of samples, as well as carry out activity and behavioral observation and quantitation before and after injections of agents of interest, CNS dissection, immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy, hemolymph sampling, real time RT-PCR, in situ hybridization, and Western Blot analysis.