Hi! My name is Christina Hung, a graduate student on the seahorse/vole side of the lab. Using prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), my research interests center around the neurobiology of non-reproductive social relationships, such as same-sex sibling bonds and alloparental care.
I began working with voles in early 2019, while I was an undergraduate in the Beery Lab at Smith College. In the Beery Lab, I assisted with projects studying same-sex peer relationships and group living in both meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus), a seasonally social species of vole, and prairie voles. While at Smith, I also completed an honors thesis project in the Mangiamele Lab, where I used machine learning to examine foot-flagging behavior in the Bornean rock frog (Staurois parvus).
After graduating from Smith College in 2022, I worked as a technician in the Schafer Lab and SCOPE light microscopy core facility at UMass Chan Medical School. In the Schafer Lab and the SCOPE, I worked on projects that used spatial transcriptomics (mainly MERFISH) to answer questions ranging from the role of microglia in neurodegenerative diseases to gene expression patterns in skin. In 2023, I joined the Bales Lab at UC Davis as a graduate student in the Psychology program.
Outside of the lab, I enjoy creative writing, playing video games, and crochet. Please feel free to contact me at clhung@ucdavis.edu with any questions!
Recent Publications
Relationships between cortisol and urinary androgens in female titi monkeys (Plecturocebus cupreus). Gen Comp Endocrinol. 2021
Parenting costs time: Changes in pair bond maintenance across pregnancy and infant rearing in a monogamous primate (Plecturocebus cupreus). New Dir Child Adolesc Dev. 2021
What is a pair bond? Horm Behav. 2021
Compositional variation in early-life parenting structures alters oxytocin and vasopressin 1a receptor development in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). J Neuroendocrinol. 2021
Biobehavioral organization shapes the immune epigenome in infant rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta). Brain Behav Immun. 2021
Cannabinoid receptor Type 1 densities reflect social organization in Microtus. J Comp Neurol. 2021
Pharmacological Prevention of Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal in a Pregnant Guinea Pig Model. Front Pharmacol. 2021