Peishu Li lab member

2024 - Congratulations, Peishu Li, PhD!
We are excited to announce Dr. Peishu Li's successful defense of his PhD dissertation, titled Evolutionary Morphology of the Mammalian Hyoid Apparatus: Form, Function and Diversity. We wish him luck in his new position as faculty at Ohio University!

Alec Wilken, Julia Schultz, Zhe-Xi Luo, and Callum Ross publish new paper on load path analysis

2024 - Alec Wilken, Julia Schultz, Zhe-Xi Luo, and Callum Ross publish new paper on load path analysis
Members of the Ross Lab and collaborators have published a new paper in Journal of Experimental Biology. The paper describes using opossum mandible models to compare with in vivo data and calculate load paths, highlighting this method as a way to understand form-function relationships in the skeleton. [DOI]

Emily McParland, Dr. Ross, and colleagues publish a new paper on rat chewing kinematics

2024 - Emily McParland, Dr. Ross, and colleagues publish a new paper on rat chewing kinematics
Emily McParland, Dr. Ross and colleagues, including lab alumni JD Laurence-Chasen and Kazutaka Takahashi, have published a new paper on the kinematics of chewing in the Wistar brown rat (Rattus norvegicus). This paper arose out of the fruitful collaboration between Dr. Ross's lab at the University of Chicago and Dr. Nicholas Gidmark's lab at Knox College. Because this species has an unfused mandibular symphysis, the kinematics are quite complex. The paper finds that due to the complexity, the rat is an unsuitable species in many cases for studying general mammalian chewing evolution or human chewing. [DOI]

Dr. Ross publishes paper on primate muscle fiber measurement with Dr. Andrea Taylor and colleagues

2024 - Dr. Ross publishes paper on primate muscle fiber measurement with Dr. Andrea Taylor and colleagues
Dr. Ross is a coauthor on Dr. Andrea Taylor's new paper on muscle fiber measurement techniques in strepsirrhine and platyrrhine primates. Evidence from this paper suggests that different techniques produce different results, and therefore the purpose of the study should be considered when considering which technique to use. [DOI]

Alec Wilken lab member

2023 - Alec Wilken co-authors a new paper on prokinesis in the feeding and locomotor systems of parrots
Alec Wilken is on a new paper from Michael Grantosky's Comparative Animal Motion Lab at NYIT. The paper describes how rosy-faced lovebirds use prokinesis during tripedal climbing and mandibular/maxillary adduction, i.e., biting. They report that the maxilla is primarily responsible for generating force during locomotion and the mandible is primarily responsible for generating force during jaw adduction. It suggests that these parrots can alter prokinetic function using modulation of neuromuscular control. [Article]

Figure 1 graph

2023 - New paper from Ross-Hatsopoulos Lab Collaboration
Multiple regions of primate orofacial sensorimotor cortex encode bite force and gape. This paper just out from the Ross-Hatsopoulos collaboration funded by R01 "Neuroplasticity and the role of sensorimotor cortex in control of orofacial function”. R01DE023816-01. [Article]

jexbio cover image

2023 - Ontogenetic changes in bite force and gape in tufted capuchins
Laird MF, Kanno CM, Yoakum, CB, Fogaça, MD, Taylor AB, Ross, CF, Chalk-Wilayto, J, Holmes, MA, Terhune, CE, de Oliveira, JA. (2023) Journal of Experimental Biology jeb.245972.

Visualization of 6 different models of developing infant skulls. Cranial bone is indicated in gray, while sutures are depicted in orange.

2023 - New paper from the Panagiotopoulou/Reid/Ross collaboration
The biomechanics of chewing and suckling in the infant: A potential mechanism for physiologic metopic suture closure. Pranav N. Haravu, Miguel Gonzalez, Shelby L. Nathan, Callum F. Ross, Olga Panagiotopoulou, Russell R. Reid [Article]

Springer image

2023 - Dysphagia Review: Biomechanical and Cortical Control of Tongue Movements During Chewing and Swallowing
Biomechanical and Cortical Control of Tongue Movements During Chewing and Swallowing Callum F. Ross, J. D. Laurence-Chasen, Peishu Li, Courtney Orsbon & Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos This review of biomechanical and cortical control of the tongue is just out in Dysphagia! Based in part on dissertation work by JD Laurence-Chasen, Courtney Orsbon, and Peishu Li, this is another output from the Ross/Hatsopoulos collaboration on neural control of orofacial behaviors. [DOI]

jaws image

2023 - Ross-Hatsopoulos Lab paper
Robust cortical encoding of 3D tongue shape during feeding in macaques This new paper from the long-standing Ross-Hatsopoulos Lab collaboration was based on JD Laurence-Chasen's dissertation. This is the first evidence that the brain encodes shape dynamics of a muscular soft-body. Great work, JD! [Article]

Transverse shear strain

2023 - New Ross Lab paper on macaques as models for human mandibular fracture fixation
Macaca mulatta is a good model for human mandibular fixation research This paper is a product of our collaborations with Dr. Russell Reid MD, PhD at University of Chicago, Olga Pangiotopoulou, PhD at Monash. Two Pritzker School of Medical Medicine students worked on this paper, with Pranav Haravu leading the charge. Thanks to all involved. [Article]

New Ross Lab paper on sagittal suture strain in capuchins

2023 - New Ross Lab paper on sagittal suture strain in capuchins
Thanks to Craig Byron for leading the charge on this great paper reporting in vivo bone strain from multiple sites across the sagittal suture in capuchins. These are important data on the variation in strain along the suture and across different behaviors. Sagittal suture strain in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus and Cebus) during feeding Craig Byron | David Reed | Jose Iriarte-Diaz | Qian Wang | David Strait | Myra F. Laird | Callum F. Ross [Article]

New Ross Lab paper

2023 - New Ross Lab paper
Callum signed onto an important statement about personal autonomy and self-determination in health care. Thanks to Jason organ and colleagues for getting this important statement out. Personal Autonomy and Self-Determination are Crucial for Professionalism in Healthcare [Article]

AAA Meeting in DC

2023 - AAA Meeting in DC
The Ross Lab was represented at American Association of Anatomy conference in Washington DC with great podium presentations by: Alec Wilken on Using Load Path Theory to Understand the Role of Trabecular Bone in Mandibles Kaleb Sellers on The Effects of Skull Flattening on Crocodylian Cranial Biomechanics Felippe Prado on Biomechanics of Pierre Robin Mandibular Distraction Osteogenesis. Callum Ross presented a poster on why 2D FEA of vertebrate mandibles is flawed, based on our recent paper by Amanda Smith et al in Journal of Royal Society Interface. Great work by the Ross Lab Crew. [Article]

Kaleb award

2023 - Ross Lab postdoc Kaleb Sellers wins Early Career Anatomist Publication Award
Congratulations, Kaleb! Great work.

Midwest Regional SICB

2023 - Midwest Regional SICB

Evan Johnson-Ransom

2022 - Evan Johnson-Ransom joins Ross and Sereno Labs
The Ross Lab is excited to have Evan as a colleague and team member. Evan received his Bachelor’s from DePaul University (2018) and his Master’s from Oklahoma State University (2021). He was a summer graduate fellow at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (2022). He works on dinosaur skulls! Welcome, Evan!

Evultion and development image

2022 - Alec Wilken in Neuroscience Training Program!
Alec Wilken has been admitted into the Neural, Computational, and Neuromechanical Approaches to Motor Control Training Program, funded by a T32 training grant at University of Chicago. Congratulations to Alec!

GLSP 2022 logo

2022 - Great Lakes Student Paleoconference
Ross Lab student Peishu Li joined Isaac Magallanes, Caroline Abbott, Laura Hunter, Broc Kokesh and Rachel Laker in organizing The Great Lakes Student Paleoconference, a student-lead effort to connect and share research in paleontology around the Great Lakes region. GLSP is a great place for students to gain confidence in promoting their work in a low stress setting, network among their peers, and experience world-class collections and facilities at neighboring institutions. This year, the 4th iteration of this conference took place both on the UChicago campus and at the Field Museum on Oct 21-23, 2022. Graduate students, undergraduates, and postdocs attended and presented. The meeting was a great success.

Southside Science Festival 2022

2022 - South Side Science Fair
The science festival was a great success! Peishu, Isaac Magallanes from the Luo Lab, and Alec created displays to show off inner ear and jaw evolution and presented 3-D models of teeth. The jaw display included models of fossils loaded with rubber band "muscles" that festival attendees could use to close the jaw after pulling it down. They also brought force gages so attendees could measure the "bite force" of the jaw. They then used videos of their XROMM, FEA, and CT work to show how 21st century paleontologists tackle problems. They inspired many little therians to consider pursuing a passion in paleontology and got an invite to present these outreach tools for an event at Rush in the spring!

SICB 2023 logo

2022 - SICB 2023
Members of the Ross Lab/UChicago IB Program will be presenting their work at SICB 2023.

  • Hannah Farrell: Cortical bone distribution in the hominoid clavicle during ontogeny
  • Samantha Gartner: Elastic skull ligaments and the biomechanics of the parrotfish bite.
  • Peishu Li: XROMM reveals tongue base retraction mechanism during swallowing in Didelphis virginiana.
  • Alec Wilken: The effect of trabecular bone on force transfer in the jaws of mammals.