Humans of HBI: Rockwell Anyoha

[su_boxbox title=”About”]Rockwell Anyoha is a graduate student in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University and studies animal behavior in the labs of Professors Hopi Hoekstra and Bob Datta. Rockwell writes that “we sort of understand human behavior—when a human is angry or happy, what their gestures mean, and why they might do certain things. That’s not well understood in mice. And it’s also not understood how to understand it.” Follow him on Twitter. The story is co-published in collaboration with the Harvard Brain Science Initiative (HBI). Cover image by Celia Muto.[/su_boxbox]

Rockwell Anyoha – Portrait photo by Celia Muto.

What made you interested in animal behavior?
Honestly, I just love animals. I grew up surrounded by nature and spent a lot of time interacting with both wild and domestic animals. We are always taught how “special” humans are, but in my childhood experiences of being bested in attempts to chase and capture also sorts of critters, I’d always felt that animals were just as impressive. Educational shows such as The Crocodile Hunter were also inspirations for me. In that show, I was moved by Steve Irwin’s contagious excitement for animals and admired the respect he showed for them and their environments. I learned that animals were precious enough to warrant conservation, and interesting enough to warrant intellectual pursuit. Simply put, I’m convinced that animals are cool and do interesting stuff and learning about the things they do and how and why they do them can be both fun and fruitful. And finally, I find ethology particularly interesting because you have to think about the animal not only in the lab, but also in its natural context.

So how do you study animal behavior?
Through observation! I take 3D videos of mice and analyze their patterns of behavior. The framework, originally developed in the Datta lab, is called Motion Sequencing (MoSeq). To interpret the data, I use a two-pronged approach: evolutionary and developmental. The evolutionary approach is mostly what I do in the Hoekstra Lab. I observe different species of deer mice (Peromyscus) and look at similarities and differences in their behavior. I know how these mice are related and can precisely measure their behaviors. So I use this information to identify behaviors which may be evolutionarily meaningful. My lab mate, Nick Jourjine, refers to this system as our “model clade”.

The other approach is developmental, mostly what I do in the Datta Lab. I look at mice at different (behavioral) developmental stages and ask how patterns of behavior change over time.

What is one of the challenges in your work?
There are both technical and conceptual challenges related to measuring the behaviors of different species. On the technical side, different species have different shapes and sizes but need to be mapped onto the same space for quantitative comparison purposes. On the conceptual side, it’s not clear that behavior is objectively “map-able” across species with different morphology. Other challenges have to do with interpreting the differences in behaviors across species or even between experimental groups in the same species. It’s difficult to have an expectation of how different behaviors should be.

You mentioned liking to mentor younger students interested in research. What about your mentors? Have you had any great mentors on your way to graduate school?
Oh my God. So many great mentors. Unbelievable. I feel like every mentor I’ve had has been amazing. I feel very lucky.

What makes someone an amazing mentor?
If I had to choose one quality it would be patience, but there are many things such as imparting wisdom, showing excitement, challenging me, etc.! I can share a couple of anecdotes.

I had a graduate student mentor in my previous lab, Charlie Fulco. One time we were running a CRISPR screen that he had designed. It was his big project. He ran one iteration and wanted to repeat it to make it cleaner. So I was running the repeat— it’s expensive, a lot of steps —and I dropped a big cell culture flask, which held in it the entire screen. It just fell all over the floor, and I was terrified. I was like “Oh my God, I can’t believe I did this.”

The first thing Charles said – and this is his baby, remember – the first thing to come out of his mouth was a calm “Okay, how did this happen?” I told him how I grabbed the flask from the incubator and the top was a bit loose—and he right away explained how to tighten the cap better next time. Basically, the thing I learned Charlie was his attitude. That things sometimes fail and that’s expected… the most productive thing to do is turn it into a learning experience. Be positive. He really practiced and preached that.

My other graduate student mentor, Jesse Engreitz, taught me how to design experiments so that I could learn something each time—even when the experiment itself fails, or you get a negative result. He taught me that you can be a very, very critical scientist without ever being mean – having an “us against the problem” philosophy.

What is your ultimate career goal?
I want to be a research professor. I love research and want to keep doing it. I want to be able to ask and answer questions however I want. I really enjoy the academic environment, however, I also appreciate the fact that this atmosphere can be achieved outside of academia.

I saw a big dog in your lab photo. Is that yours?
Yes, it’s my dog Mochi! She’s three years old, a very active, curious, and silly dog. I love teaching her tricks. Everyone should follow her on Instagram (@queen_mochiii).

Did you have pets growing up?
Yes, I had a bunch. I had fish, a border collie named Buddy and a rat named Jive. I built a maze for Jive. I also briefly had parakeets. I have pet fish right now as well. I definitely watch their behavior and do experiments on them.

What do you do for fun outside the lab?
I play a lot of sports. I really love soccer. I also do a lot of hiking. And I like beaches – playing soccer on the beach, hiking to a beach, going in the water, or getting to an island where I can hike. The last hike I went on was Mount Osceola in the White Mountains. 

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