Name: Jack Cerchiara, PhD

Title: Telomere maintenance and corticosterone in Magellanic penguins

Metamorphosis of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is regulated by two hormones, ecdysone and juvenile hormone (JH). The developing eye and optic lobe (OL) present a unique challenge to this hormonal control because the eye forms progressively over a two day period and the resulting wave of photoreceptor ingrowth directs a corresponding wave of neural organization to the underlying OL. These waves of development occur during phasic pulses of both ecdysone and JH.