WEBINAR: Beyond Blood with the Great Whales: Deciphering the stories of individual whales via endocrine analysis of alternative sample types

Title: Beyond Blood with the Great Whales: Deciphering the stories of individual whales via endocrine analysis of alternative sample types

Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2024 (virtual presentation)

Introduction: Dr. Kathleen Hunt is a comparative endocrinologist who has studied stress and reproductive hormones in wild vertebrates for over thirty years. Though her career began with analysis of traditional plasma samples from small birds, she now works with species so large and so powerful that collection of blood samples can be difficult or impossible. Fortunately, the field of wildlife endocrinology has been transformed by the discovery that hormones are also detectable in many “alternative” (non-plasma) sample types. In this talk, Dr. Hunt will describe how endocrine analyses of cetacean feces, respiratory vapor, baleen, and even teeth have enhanced our understanding of whale biology, including how whales are impacted by environmental change and human activities. Examples will include the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, WWII-era Antarctic blue whales, Alaskan bowheads from the 1800’s to today, and Pacific Coast gray whales. Dr. Hunt’s talk will also provide a general overview of how hormone immunoassays can be adapted and validated for a wide variety of other vertebrates and other sample types.

Brought to you by Arbor Assays and CliniSciences.

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