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!​
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)