Daphne Soares

I got my PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland in 2002. My research was in the neural basis of auditory computations in the brainstem of Archosaurs (Birds and crocodilians). I also described a new sensory organ in alligators that detect water ripples. I continued my work in Harvard as postdoctoral fellow at the Bauer Center for Genomics Research. There I started working on fishes. I was an assistant professor at the University of Maryland where I studied neural adaptations of cavefishes to extreme environments.

Ph.D.; ; ;

Professional Development; Marine Biological Laboratory ; Molecular evolution workshop; 2016

https://www.soareslab.org/

BIOL 700B - MASTER'S PROJECT

BIOL 788 - ST: ADVANCES IN BIOLOGY

BIOL 725 - INDEPENDENT STUDY I

BIOL 726 - INDEPENDENT STUDY II

BIOL 790B - DOCT DISSERTATION & RESRCH

BIOL 790E - DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

BIOL 792C - PRE-DOCTORAL RESEARCH

BIOL 491 - SENIOR PROJECT

BIOL 790A - DOCT DISSERTATION & RESRCH

BIOL 790D - DOCT DISSERTATION & RESRCH

BIOL 790C - DOCTORAL DISSERTN & RESRCH

BIOL 792B - PRE-DOCTORAL RESEARCH

I am passionate about cultivating curious scientific spirits in both future scientists and the general public, and I bring this passion to the classroom. As biological sciences become increasingly centered on model animals and driven by cutting edge technologies, I believe there is room for exploration of the natural world and for simple and direct jargon-free communication. Further, an approach that uses everyday life examples and aims to uncover the science behind popular science reports is not only more accessible but also more interesting.
Mentoring goals: I aim to create a dynamic and nurturing laboratory where I mentor postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students to develop their own independent projects. I design my laboratory to be a safe haven for intellectual curiosity, where no one is afraid to ask difficult or unusual questions. I teach practical laboratory skills, experimental design, hypothesis testing, and critical reading of scientific literature, and I accompany my students along the road of doing everyday science. I am patient and thrilled by enthusiasm as students discover research for the first time, or overcome difficulties. I am committed to my students’ understanding of the broader context of their research, and I hope to enhance their ability to communicate their results within that context through writing manuscripts, presenting posters, and giving talks. I also broaden their scientific horizon by offering them opportunities to present their research in international meetings, take summer courses, and visit collaborating laboratories.
Teaching goals: I aim to bring the passion that drives my research into the classroom in order to inspire students to pursue science and enhance their learning experience. In my experience, students are often easily motivated by projects that demand creativity. I also think that highlighting concepts and commonalities across systems makes complex information easily understood and remembered. Students are now very technologically savvy and I incorporate media that allows them to maximally use their abilities. For example, in my courses, I give assignments that require searching for and reading of original research publications and web-based resources to produce a podcast or YouTube video on a subject of the students' choice. Many schools now provide web infrastructure for communicating and managing academic courses. I take full advantage of such resources or install them if they do not exist. My goal is to give all students every possible chance and resources to learn their own way, being mindful to the diversity of needs of students from different backgrounds. For example, some students need to be explicitly invited to participate in classroom discussions by setting a structured order of speaking. Once a norm of participation is underway, students who are either reserved or non-native English speakers are more likely to join into the discussion.
Assessment: Assessment is an important aspect of my teaching philosophy. I focus assessment of my courses in the following: 1) Course content – I use a pre-post content survey based on a multiple choice test and use statistical analysis to evaluate knowledge gained during the course. 2) Learning styles - Learning styles are assessed at the beginning and end of the class. 3) Course feedback – I gather student input at the beginning and end of the class to determine whether the use of popular science and the emphasis on learning styles helped them learn more effectively. 4) Peer evaluation – I ask faculty colleagues with expertise in teaching and learning to observe the class and provide feedback.
My mentoring and teaching goals combine my passion for science with my desire for teaching. I have the experience to determine what is most effective with each group and the drive to always use new technologies and approaches.

Neural adaptation to extreme environments:

Evolution through natural selection has shaped nervous systems to generate behaviors. However, there are very few opportunities to study neural circuit evolution where the ancestral and derived forms, as well as the adaptive environment, are all known and accessible. I study neuroecology, the synthesis of neuroethological and ecological principles to understand the evolution of neural adaptation. In my research, I concentrate my efforts into a three-pronged approach that examines the evolution of circuits, molecular mechanisms of behavior, and sensory novelty. This integrative approach links a detailed characterization of the environment with the anatomy and function of neural systems within a phylogenetic context. My research goal is to determine the rules for neural adaptation to extreme environments, specifically in cavefishes, by incorporating ecological and neuroethological approaches.
Cave environments present an array of extreme conditions for organisms, including perpetual darkness and scarceness of food sources. Because the direction of evolution is known (i.e., from surface to subterranean), the independent colonization and adaptation to cave environments by many disparate groups of organisms can be viewed as replicate phylogenetic experiments now waiting to be assayed. In addition, this phylogenetic diversity and the range of cave environments provide numerous opportunities to study independent responses to shared and unique environmental features. I measure characteristics of the physical environment to identify conditions and stimuli that may be involved in behaviors, while using ethology to determine their behavioral relevance. I use neuroethological approaches to examine what stimuli are detected and the molecular-, cellular-, and systems-level mechanisms underlying their reception and integration.
Cavefishes are uniquely suited for the study of evolution, because (a) many lineages around the world have independently evolved an obligate, cave-adapted existence allowing for natural replication; (b) their evolution covers varying timescales, from just tens of thousands to several million years; (c) the directionality of ecological shifts are known, from a surface environment to a cave; (d) their evolution can be directly linked to environmental conditions; and (e) compared with many other subterranean organisms, cavefishes are easier to capture because of their larger size and pale coloration.
Much of the interest in cave-adapted species is related to the fascinating suite of morphologies that enable these species to survive in caves. Their lack of eyes and pigmentation, elongated fins, and increased numbers of skin sensory organs, such as taste buds and neuromasts, are all convergent traits that permit cavefishes to survive in subterranean habitats. I study many species of cavefishes worldwide, and in the last few years I have described a new cave loach in China and revealed a new mechanosensory organ in a cavefish from Ecuador. I also study the Mexican species of tetra, Astyanax mexicanus and the American family Amblyopsidae. The Astyanax model is especially suited for the study of circuit evolution because it is the only cavefish that can be bred in the laboratory, including hybrids between cave and surface fish. Further, while Astyanax is a relatively recent cavefish, the amblyopsids are a much older clade with five cave-restricted species that represent a range of troglomorphy reflecting variable durations of isolation in caves, thus making comparisons of circuits and behaviors more insightful.

Tanvir, Z, & Rivera, D, & Severi, Kristen E., & Haspel, Gal, & Soares, Daphne F. (2021). Evolutionary and homeostatic changes in morphology of visual dendrites of Mauthner cells in Astyanax blind cavefish.. The Journal of comparative neurology, 529(8), 1779-1786.

Tanvir, Z, & Rivera, D, & Severi, Kristen E., & Haspel, Gal, & Soares, Daphne F. (2020). Evolutionary and homeostatic changes in morphology of visual dendrites of Mauthner cells in Astyanax blind cavefish.. The Journal of comparative neurology,

Yoffe, M, & Patel, K, & Palia, E, & Kolawole, S, & Streets, A, & Haspel, Gal, & Soares, Daphne F. (2020). Morphological malleability of the lateral line allows for surface fish (Astyanax mexicanus) adaptation to cave environments.. Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution,

Flammang, Brooke E, & Suvarnaraksha, Apinun, & Markiwicz, Julie, & Soares, Daphne F. (2016). Tetrapod-like pelvic girdle in a walking cavefish. Scientific Reports, 6, 23711.

Haspel, Gal, & Schwartz, A, & Streets, A, & Camacho, D E, & Soares, Daphne F. (2012). By the teeth of their skin, cavefish find their way.. Current biology, 22(16), R629-30.

Soares, Daphne F., & Niemiller, Matthew, & Higgs, Dennis (2015). Hearing in cavefishes, Joseph A. Sisneros (Ed.), Springer International Publishing. (pp. 511). Springer International Publishing