About

Fred Nijhout's research, and that of his associates, is concerned with understanding developmental physiology, particularly the regulatory processes in postembryonic development of insects. They are also interested in the evolution of those processes, and the insights this can give into the mechanisms by which genes, environment, and physiology affect the development and evolution of complex traits. Their investigations focus on four specific and interconnected areas: the control of metamorphosis and polyphenism, the control of growth, body size, and allometry, the development and evolution of wing patterns, and the genetics, evolution, and mathematical modeling of complex traits.

Research topics

• Internal medicine
• Neuroscience
• Pharmacology
• Computer Science
• Biology
• Evolutionary biology
• Medicine
• Endocrinology
• Zoology
• Data science
• Nanotechnology
• Ecology
• Genetics
• Materials science
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Serotonin is a common thread linking different classes of antidepressants

  Cell chemical biology · 2023 · 14 citations

  • Pharmacology
  • Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Inflammation-Induced Histamine Impairs the Capacity of Escitalopram to Increase Hippocampal Extracellular Serotonin

  Journal of Neuroscience · 2021 · 57 citations

  • Pharmacology
  • Internal medicine
  • Endocrinology

  Acute LPS-induced inflammation (1) increases CNS histamine, (2) decreases CNS serotonin (via inhibitory histamine receptors), and (3) prevents a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) from effectively increasing extracellular serotonin. A targeted depletion of histamine recovers SSRI-induced increases in extracellular hippocampal serotonin.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Diverse nanostructures underlie thin ultra-black scales in butterflies

  Nature Communications · 2020 · 66 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Nanotechnology
  • Evolutionary biology

  Recently, it has been shown that animals such as jumping spiders, birds, and butterflies have evolved ultra-black coloration comparable to the blackest synthetic materials. Of these, certain papilionid butterflies have reflectances approaching 0.2%, resulting from a polydisperse honeycomb structure. It is unknown if other ultra-black butterflies use this mechanism. Here, we examine a phylogenetically diverse set of butterflies and demonstrate that other butterflies employ simpler nanostructures that achieve ultra-black coloration in scales thinner than synthetic alternatives. Using scanning electron microscopy, we find considerable interspecific variation in the geometry of the holes in the structures, and verify with finite-difference time-domain modeling that expanded trabeculae and ridges, found across ultra-black butterflies, reduce reflectance up to 16-fold. Our results demonstrate that butterflies produce ultra-black by creating a sparse material with high surface area to increase absorption and minimize surface reflection. We hypothesize that butterflies use ultra-black to increase the contrast of color signals.

  DOI

• Origin of the mechanism of phenotypic plasticity in satyrid butterfly eyespots

  eLife · 2020 · 63 citations

  • Biology
  • Evolutionary biology
  • Ecology

  atyrid butterflies is a complex derived adaptation of this lineage. By reconstructing the evolution of known physiological and molecular components of eyespot size plasticity in a comparative framework, we showed that 20E titer plasticity in response to temperature is a pre-adaptation shared by all butterfly species examined, whereas expression of EcR in eyespot centers, and eyespot sensitivity to 20E, are both derived traits found only in a subset of species with eyespots.

  DOI

Recent grants

• Meeting: Genomes to Phenomes (G2P) Workshop, Arlington, VA (October 25-27, 2015)

  NSF · $55k · 2015–2017

• Control of Size and Allometry: A Top-Down Approach

  NSF · $507k · 2008–2014

• The Physiological Basis of Allometry

  NSF · $857k · 2016–2022

• Pattern Formation in Lepidoptera

  NSF · $207k · 1986–1990

• Endocrine Control of Imaginal Disk Growth

  NSF · $615k · 2003–2008

Frequent coauthors

• Michael C. Reed

  Duke University

  115 shared

• Cornelia M. Ulrich

  University of Utah

  75 shared

• Jesse F. Gregory

  University of Florida

  70 shared

• Marian L. Neuhouser

  Fred Hutch Cancer Center

  66 shared

• S. Jill James

  University College London

  66 shared

• Barry Shane

  University of California, Berkeley

  65 shared

• Amy Liu

  Georgetown University

  64 shared

• Janet Best

  The Ohio State University

  17 shared

Awards & honors

• John Franklin Crowell Distinguished Professor of Biology (20…
• Elected to National Academy of Sciences (2025)

Similar researchers at Duke University

• Robert J. Lefkowitzh-328
• Avshalom Caspih-242
• Darell Doty Bignerh-190
• Christopher Bang Newgardh-175
• Kun Shan Carolyn Leeh-168