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 meerkat reproductive endocrinology and eco-immunology, comparative neuro-endocrinology in various lemurs, and exploring the diversity of microbiomes in relation to heath 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. She is the current Director of Graduate Studies for the University Program in Ecology. If you are interested in working in the Drea lab, see our 'prospectives' page. 
Lab news!​
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)
December 2017
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! Human Sexuality. See publications for more details!
August 2017
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! Genetic wealth, population health: Major histocompatibility complex variation in captive and wild ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). See publications for more details!
June 2017
  • New paper out of the Drea Lab! Social odours covary with bacterial community in the anal secretions of wild meerkats. See publications for more details!
  • Congratulations to Nick for winning the The New Investigator Award from the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.
  • Congratulations to Lydia for being awarded a Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation Award.
March 2017
  • Congratulations to Dr. Kendra Smyth for successfully defending her dissertation!
January 2017
  • Rachel and Kendra present on olfactory cues of injury and illness in lemurs and the consequences of prenatal androgen exposure for offspring health in meerkats at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology in New Orleans, LA. Congratulations to Kendra for winning best student poster in the Division of Ecoimmunology and Disease Ecology!