Darcy Kelley

Research at the Kelley Lab investigates social communication in the Xenopus genus: the development, function, and evolution of neural circuits for producing and responding to vocal sounds.

The twenty-nine species in this genus depend on acoustic communication for finding and attracting mates, have a well-supported phylogeny, are readily reared in the laboratory, and provide experimental advantages including the ability to evoke fictive singing from the brain and species-specific songs from the larynx. The Kelley Lab aims to determine how the production and perception of vocal signals are matched across sexes. It is also identifying the genetic changes that support the divergence of acoustic communication across evolutionary time scales.

During her time at the Institute, she will work with Ursula Kwong-Brown.

Darcy B. Kelley is the Harold Weintraub Professor of Biological Science at Columbia University and the founding and current co-director of the Neurobiology and Behavior Graduate Program.