Faculty in Biology
Louise Page, Associate Professor
Office: PCH 010
Teaching: Invertebrate Biology, Marine Invertebrates.
Evolutionary developmental biology of gastropod molluscs, functional morphology of marine invertebrates
My research investigates how evolutionary innovations arise by changes to developmental programmes. A major focus of current studies is analysis of comparative patterns of development in gastropods to test long-standing hypotheses about the early evolution of this group. These investigations emphasize morphogenesis of the nervous system, musculature, and mantle cavity and employ electron microscopical and immunohistochemical techniques.
A second focus in my lab involves analysis of developmental novelties that facilitated
evolutionary emergence of derived feeding structures in gastropods. Finally, my students and I have been studying aspects of the larval nervous system of gastropods. We seek to understand the organization of these larval neural elements and how they control larval behaviours and possibly help organize the adult nervous system.