Welcome to the Drea Lab! 

In the Drea Lab we explore various aspects of mammalian sociality, reproduction, and health in exceptional primates and carnivores. We focus on female-dominant species (e.g. hyenas, lemurs, & meerkats), integrating field and laboratory approaches to better elucidate the proximate mechanisms and ultimate causes underlying this unusual social structure. 

Our current work focuses on comparative neuro-endocrinology in various lemurs, and exploring the diversity of microbiomes in relation to health and signaling in captive and wild lemurs. 

Dr. Christine Drea is a professor at Duke University in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Biology, University Program in Ecology, and Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. If you are interested in working in the Drea lab, please see PROSPECTIVES & LINKS. 
Lab news!​
February 2021
  • New media coverage out of the Drea Lab! Post doc Nick Grebe interviewed by New York Times Science. See publications page for link!
  • New paper and media coverage out of the Drea Lab! Neural correlates of mating system diversity: oxytocin and vasopressin receptor distributions in monogamous and non-monogamous Eulemur. See publications page for more details and for media link!
April 2020
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! A role for gut microbiota in host niche differentiation. See publications for more details!
January 2020
  • Congratulations to Sally for getting recommended for funding for a NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (BA-DDRIG)!
September 2019​
  • New media coverage out of the Drea Lab! Lemur sex role reversal gets its start in the womb. See publications page for link!
August 2019
  • Welcome Allie Schrock who joined the lab as an EvAnth graduate student!
  • New media coverage out of the Drea Lab! Lemurs find love at first whiff. See publications page for link!
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! P-Mail: The Information Highway of
    Nocturnal, but Not Diurnal or Cathemeral, Strepsirrhines. See publications for more details!​
July 2019
  • Dr. Drea Interviews with the "People Behind the Science" podcast. See media coverage for link. 
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! Organizational and activational androgens, lemur social play, and the ontogeny of female dominance. See publications for more details!​
May 2019
  • Congratulations to Dr. Lydia Greene for successfully defending her dissertation!
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! Hormone-Associated Psychological Cycle Shifts Redux: Revisiting a Preregistered Study Examining Preferences for Muscularity. See publications for more details!
April 2019 
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab!  A comparative study of gut microbiomes in captive nocturnal strepsirrhines. See publications for more details!
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! The importance of scale in comparative microbiome research: New insights from the gut and glands of captive and wild lemurs. See publications for more details!
March 2019
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! Testosterone, Cortisol, and Status-Striving Personality Features: A Review and Empirical Evaluation of the Dual Hormone Hypothesis. See publications for more details!
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! Pair Bonding, Fatherhood, and the Role of Testosterone: A Meta-Analytic Review. See publications for more details!
December 2018
  • Congratulations to Lydia for her contribution to NPR's The State of Things! See media coverage for link.
September 2018
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! The critical role of dietary foliage in maintaining the gut microbiome and metabolome of folivorous sifakas. See publications for more details!
August 2018 
  • Congratulations to Nick for receiving a 2-year NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for his work with Eulemur as a primate model for oxytocin system evolution and function! 
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! Social and endocrine correlates of immune function in meerkats: Implications for the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis. See publications for more details!
June 2018
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! Incidence and biomarkers of pregnancy, spontaneous abortion, and neonatal loss during an environmental stressor: Implications for female reproductive suppression in the cooperatively breeding meerkat. See publications for more details!
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! Costs of injury for scent signalling in a strepsirrhine primate. See publications for more details!
April 2018
  • ​Congratulations to Sally on winning a 2018 Anthropocene Graduate Research Grant!​
March 2018
  • ​Congratulations to Sally on National Geographic coverage of her undergraduate work on eusociality in snapping shrimp! (see media coverage for link)