YALE JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 91 (2018), pp.513-515. Interview A Career in and Elucidating the Genetic Basis of Variation

An Interview with Hopi Hoekstra, PhD

Tafadzwa L. Chaunzwaa,b,* aYale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT; bHoward Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD

Hopi E. Hoekstra, PhD, is the Alexander Agassiz Growing up I was always really interested in history, Professor of in the Departments of Organismic so actually I went to college thinking I was going to ma- and Evolutionary Biology, and Molecular and Cellular jor in political science. I think it was through just spend- Biology at Harvard University. She is a Howard Hughes ing time in the natural world that I got more and more Medical Institute investigator studying the genetic deter- interested in biology, and I realized I was less and less minants of behavior, as well as reproductive and morpho- interested in political science. When I was a sophomore, logic variation. She primarily works with wild mice as I switched and took the introductory biology classes and a model and her efforts are helping better describe the required physics and chemistry courses and so forth. genetic origins of variation in other vertebrates, including But the thing that really got me started in science was humans [1]. during that sophomore year, I took a more advanced class After graduating from the University of California in comparative physiology, and in that class we actually Berkeley with a degree in Integrative Biology, Dr. Hoek- did experiments, summarized our own data, and we did stra completed her PhD at the , research presentations. So I got a taste of what it would where she was a Howard Hughes Pre-doctoral Fellow. be like to be a researcher, and then I was invited into that She went on to study the genetic basis of adaptive mel- professor’s lab to conduct research. So for me, that was anism in pocket mice as an NIH Post-doctoral Fellow at the clear defining time. the . Dr. Hoekstra was an Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Diego, be- How did you wind up in your current field of fore joining the faculty at Harvard University, where she investigation? is also the Curator of Mammals at the Museum of Com- When I was an undergrad I was doing research in parative Zoology. , and during that time I fell in love with re- search and the process of discovery, but I didn’t fall in Could you please tell us a bit about your love with biomechanics. Then I took a sort of winding personal and professional background, and road and ended up becoming interested in organismal lev- what motivated you to pursue research? el questions. But when I started as a first year graduate

*To whom all correspondence should be addressed: Tafadzwa Chaunzwa; Email: [email protected].

Keywords: , , variation

Copyright © 2018 513 514 Chaunzwa: A career in evolutionary biology and elucidating the genetic basis of variation student it was a time when I would say that the field of molecular ecology was just starting to blossom, so this represented an opportunity to use molecular tools to ad- dress some organismal questions in an unprecedented novel way. So for me, it was being in the right place at the right time. At the University of Washington they had just hired this young, hot-shot professor, Scott Edwards, a molecular ecologist, and it was a match made in heaven. I immediately joined his lab.

What are some areas of active investigation in your lab right now? My lab has been very interested in trying to identify genes that contribute to traits that matter for the whole organism. When we started the lab we started with an eye on morphological variation, so things like pigmentation and pigment patterns, and then we moved to more com- Hopi Hoekstra, PhD, Alexander Agassiz Professor of plex morphological traits. But in recent years, we have Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Photo taken that same approach and now started to ask ques- Credit: Anna Olivella. tions about the relationship between genes and behavior. Most of the lab is working on the genetic basis of behav- questions. And for some fields they’ve been doing that ior and trying to understand how changes in genes, act in for a long time, but what’s fun these days is being able to or on neural circuits to give rise to variation in behavior. capitalize on natural variation in those systems. So for the types of things we are doing, much of our work focuses You study a wide range of topics, including on variation and trying to understand the genetic basis population genetics, evolution and of that variation. Turning to natural systems provides us development, and behavioral genetics, what are with, in some sense, more variation, hence more power to some challenges to research in this space? Do dissect the genetic basis of those differences. you see that a particular topic tends to be more challenging? You have a pretty large group of graduate and One of the challenges when we moved from mor- undergraduate students, and postdoctoral phological traits to behavioral traits is quite simple, and fellows working with you on a broad range of that is, the challenge of actually measuring behavior. You topics. What is your approach to mentorship, could take a ruler out and measure the length of a femur, and what advice would you have for individuals you can quite easily quantify pigmentation, type, and that may have an interest in research and concentration for example in the fur of rodents, but when perhaps starting their own lab in the future? you start thinking about measuring behavior it becomes There are so many axes on which you can give ad- much more complicated, especially when you’re thinking vice. A bit challenging. I think for me what has become about measuring variation, let’s say among individuals or really important is identifying a question for which you between species. So that’s a first challenge. But what’s have a passion, because being a scientist and being suc- exciting is that the field of behavior and has cessful at that requires a lot of effort and dedication and seen an explosion of new automated approaches to quan- persistence and motivation, so you really have to love tify behavioral variation, and that’s revolutionizing the what you do. And that’s sort of a general piece of advice. field and we are trying to capitalize on that. The other thing that is maybe more specific to science is, for me, some of the most exciting science happens at the How has the field evolved since you started? interface between two separate fields. So I would advise What are some gaps in our understanding of people to think about, either addressing age old questions the genetic basis of ? with new techniques and approaches, or identifying new In recent years we’ve seen a real embracing of us- questions that people could never have thought of, be- ing emerging model systems, or what many people call cause now the world is so much more interdisciplinary. “non-model systems.” So instead of just solely focusing on worms, flies, mice, and zebrafish, there is a real appre- ciation for additional systems as unique ways to address Chaunzwa: A career in evolutionary biology and elucidating the genetic basis of variation 515

You have obviously been very successful in the lab. What do you enjoy doing outside of the lab when you are not working? That’s a great question, we were just joking about this the other day. What are my hobbies? For me a lot of it is spending time with family. I have a young son who we spend a lot time with, so, Saturday morning soccer games, and local trips and so forth. More generally, I really am an avid reader, I really love to trav- el, and I am trying to learn how to cook.

Any last things you want our readers to know about you or research? For me, the thing that is most fun about being a sci- entist is being able to follow your curiosity. And as long as you can keep your research funded, you really have this autonomy to follow the questions that you are excited about, and I find that tremendously exciting. The other thing I find both wonderful and challeng- ing as an academic is finding the balance between re- search and teaching. I love teaching, especially freshmen. So I teach a large introductory course called Genetics, Genomics, and Evolution to about 300 or 400 freshmen each spring, and it’s amazing how teaching complements research. I would say you don’t know something well un- til you have to teach, and boy did I get refreshed on all my basic genetics. I feel like I’m a much broader scientist because I have had to teach.

REFERENCES

1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scientists [Internet]. Cited Nov 2018. Available from: https://www.hhmi.org/ scientists/hopi-e-hoekstra.