Research
Deleon Lab
Principal Investigator: Dr. Valerie Deleon
University of Florida, Anthropology Department
Summer 2023 - Present
Research Focus
The Deleon Lab is engaged in the study of primate anatomy and variation through the use of 3D morphometric models. The lab compares skeletal and soft tissue morphology between different species and between different stages of development in order to observe variation in these features and in the processes that form them. With this information the lab seeks to understand the evolutionary mechanisms involved in the variation of primates in the present.
Project Responsibilities
As an undergraduate volunteer for the lab, I have worked on the lab's main projects studying primate variation as well as a collaborative effort with other labs creating mouse models of human disease.
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For the primate morphology projects, I have created 3D models of primate brains, known as endocasts, for various species and have more recently worked on models of dentition and jaws in juvenile and neonatal primates.
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In the collaborative effort, I helped create 3D models of pathological and non-pathological mouse crania using morphometric software which were used to model Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome in humans.