Douglas Cavener

Huck Distinguished Chair in Evolutionary Genetics; Professor of Biology; Former Dean, Eberly College of Science

Douglas Cavener

Research Summary

Regulation of protein synthesis and control of translation initiation of mRNAs in higher eukaryotes and the evolution of tissue specific transcriptional regulation.

Huck Graduate Students

Huck Affiliations

Links

Most Recent Publications

Wolcott-Rallison syndrome – crosstalk between PERK- EIF2A and type II interferon signaling

Megha Konduri, Devin Boe, Nada Yazigi, Khalid Khan, Brant R. Ward, Blachy Davila Saldana, Douglas Cavener, Bhaskar Kallakury, Alexander Kroemer, Cal Matsumoto, Thomas Fishbein, Udeme D. Ekong, 2025, European Journal of Medical Genetics

Demographic drivers of population dynamics reveal subpopulation-specific conservation needs for giraffes in the Serengeti Ecosystem

Monica L. Bond, Dominik M. Behr, Derek Lee, Megan K.L. Strauss, Petra E. Campbell, Douglas R. Cavener, George G. Lohay, James M. Madeli, Maria Paniw, Arpat Ozgul, 2025, Journal of Wildlife Management

Sexual dimorphisms in body proportions of Masai giraffes and the evolution of the giraffe’s neck

Douglas R. Cavener, Monica L. Bond, Lan Wu-Cavener, George G. Lohay, Mia W. Cavener, Xiaoyi Hou, David L. Pearce, Derek Lee, 2024, Mammalian Biology on p. 513-527

Oligodendrocyte-selective deletion of the eIF2α kinase Perk/Eif2ak3 limits functional recovery after spinal cord injury

Sujata Saraswat Ohri, Michael D. Forston, Scott A. Myers, Brandon L. Brown, Kariena R. Andres, Russell M. Howard, Yonglin Gao, Yu Liu, Douglas R. Cavener, Michal Hetman, Scott R. Whittemore, 2024, GLIA on p. 1259-1272

Female giraffes drove the evolution of long giraffe necks in order to feed on the most nutritious leaves, new research suggests

Douglas Cavener, 2024, The Conversation

Masai giraffe population change over 40 years in Arusha National Park

Derek E. Lee, George G. Lohay, James Madeli, Douglas R. Cavener, Monica L. Bond, 2023, African Journal of Ecology on p. 345-353

Genetic evidence of population subdivision among Masai giraffes separated by the Gregory Rift Valley in Tanzania

George G. Lohay, Derek E. Lee, Lan Wu-Cavener, David L. Pearce, Xiaoyi Hou, Monica L. Bond, Douglas R. Cavener, 2023, Ecology and Evolution

Using spot pattern recognition to examine population biology, evolutionary ecology, sociality, and movements of giraffes: a 70-year retrospective

Derek E. Lee, George G. Lohay, Douglas R. Cavener, Monica L. Bond, 2022, Mammalian Biology

Co-opting regulation bypass repair as a gene-correction strategy for monogenic diseases

Jingjie Hu, Rebecca A. Bourne, Jingjie Hu, Barbara C. McGrath, D Cavener, Alice Lin, Rebecca Bourne, Zifei Pei, Alice Lin, Z Pei, Douglas R. Cavener, 2021, Molecular Therapy on p. 3274-3292

Calcineurin activity is increased in Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1B demyelinating neuropathy

Mariapaola Sidoli, Chelsey B. Reed, Cristina Scapin, Pablo Paez, Douglas R. Cavener, Randal J. Kaufman, Maurizio D’Antonio, M. Laura Feltri, Lawrence Wrabetz, 2021, Journal of Neuroscience on p. 4536-4548

Most-Cited Papers

Repression of the eIF2α kinase PERK alleviates mGluR-LTD impairments in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Wenzhong Yang, Xueyan Zhou, Helena R. Zimmermann, Douglas R. Cavener, Eric Klann, Tao Ma, 2016, Neurobiology of Aging on p. 19-24

The PERK arm of the unfolded protein response regulates satellite cell-mediated skeletal muscle regeneration

Guangyan Xiong, Sajedah M. Hindi, Aman K. Mann, Yann S. Gallot, Kyle R. Bohnert, Douglas R. Cavener, Scott R. Whittemore, Ashok Kumar, 2017, eLife

Giraffe genome sequence reveals clues to its unique morphology and physiology

Morris Agaba, Edson Ishengoma, Webb C. Miller, Barbara C. McGrath, Chelsea N. Hudson, Oscar C. Bedoya Reina, Aakrosh Ratan, Rico Burhans, Rayan Chikhi, Paul Medvedev, Craig A. Praul, Lan Wu-Cavener, Brendan Wood, Heather Robertson, Linda Penfold, Douglas R. Cavener, 2016, Nature Communications

The protein kinase PERK/EIF2AK3 regulates proinsulin processing not via protein synthesis but by controlling endoplasmic reticulum chaperones

C Sowers, R Wang, R Bourne, Barbara C. McGrath, J Hu, S Bevilacqua, J Paton, A Paton, S Collardeau-Frachon, M Nicolino, Douglas R. Cavener, 2018, Journal of Biological Chemistry on p. 5134-5149

Ribosome binding protein GCN1 regulates the cell cycle and cell proliferation and is essential for the embryonic development of mice

Hiromi Yamazaki, Shuya Kasai, Junsei Mimura, Peng Ye, Atsushi Inose-Maruyama, Kunikazu Tanji, Koichi Wakabayashi, Seiya Mizuno, Fumihiro Sugiyama, Satoru Takahashi, Tsubasa Sato, Taku Ozaki, Douglas R. Cavener, Masayuki Yamamoto, Ken Itoh, 2020, PLoS Genetics

Ablation of Perk in schwann cells improves myelination in the S63del charcot-marie-tooth 1B mouse

Mariapaola Sidoli, Nicolò Musner, Nicholas Silvestri, Daniela Ungaro, Maurizio D’Antonio, Douglas R. Cavener, M. Laura Feltri, Lawrence Wrabetz, 2016, Journal of Neuroscience on p. 11350-11361

PERK Regulates working memory and protein synthesis-dependent memory flexibility

Siying Zhu, Keely Henninger, Barbara C. McGrath, Douglas R. Cavener, 2016, PLoS One on p. e0162766

PERK regulates G<sub>q</sub> protein-coupled intracellular Ca<sup>2+</sup> dynamics in primary cortical neurons

Siying Zhu, Barbara C. McGrath, Yuting Bai, Xin Tang, Douglas R. Cavener, 2016, Molecular Brain on p. 1-11

Genetic connectivity and population structure of African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Tanzania

G Lohay, T Weathers, A Estes, Barbara C. McGrath, Douglas Cavener, 2020, Ecology and Evolution on p. 11069-11089

Seeing spots: Quantifying mother-offspring similarity and assessing fitness consequences of coat pattern traits in a wild population of giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis)

Derek E. Lee, Douglas R. Cavener, M Bond, 2018, PeerJ on p. e5690

News Articles Featuring Douglas Cavener

Jul 18, 2024

Female giraffes drove the evolution of long giraffe necks in order to feed on the most nutritious leaves, new research suggests

Everything in biology ultimately boils down to food and sex. To survive as an individual you need food. To survive as a species you need sex.

Full Article

Jun 05, 2024

Female giraffes drove the evolution of long giraffe necks in order to feed on the most nutritious leaves, new research suggests

Everything in biology ultimately boils down to food and sex. To survive as an individual you need food. To survive as a species you need sex.

Full Article

Jun 05, 2024

Female giraffes drove the evolution of long giraffe necks in order to feed on the most nutritious leaves, new research suggests

Everything in biology ultimately boils down to food and sex. To survive as an individual you need food. To survive as a species you need sex.

Full Article

Jun 03, 2024

Food, not sex, drove the evolution of giraffes’ long neck, new study finds

Why do giraffes have such long necks? A study led by Penn State biologists explores how this trait might have evolved and lends new insight into this iconic question. The reigning hypothesis is that competition among males influenced neck length, but the research team found that female giraffes have proportionally longer necks than males — suggesting that high nutritional needs of females may have driven the evolution of this trait.

Full Article

Jul 25, 2023

Masai giraffes at increased risk after subspecies divides into two

Already endangered Masai giraffes are even more at risk than previously thought.

Full Article

Jun 15, 2023

Giraffes ‘more endangered than previously thought’

Giraffes in East Africa may be more endangered than previously thought, researchers reveal in a study calling for more focused conservation strategies to protect them.

Full Article

Jun 14, 2023

Endangered Masai giraffes may be inbreeding themselves to extinction

Masai giraffes are endangered, and their numbers have almost halved in the last 30 years due to hunting and habitat loss. But these towering animals may be facing a new threat to their future, a recent study reveals — inbreeding.

Full Article

Jun 12, 2023

Masai giraffes more endangered than previously thought

Giraffes in eastern Africa may be even more endangered than previously thought. A new study led by researchers at Penn State revealed that populations of Masai giraffes separated geographically by the Great Rift Valley have not interbred — or exchanged genetic material — in more than a thousand years, and in some cases hundreds of thousands of years.

Full Article

Jun 02, 2022

Metal AF Giraffe Cousins Had Skulls Made for Bashing

Before evolution made giraffes, it made this feisty little gentleman.

Full Article

Oct 14, 2021

Douglas Cavener named Huck Chair in Evolutionary Genetics

Douglas R. Cavener, Penn State professor of biology and former Verne M. Willaman Dean of the Eberly College of Science, has been named Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Distinguished Chair in Evolutionary Genetics by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.

Full Article

Apr 22, 2021

Bypassing broken genes

A new approach to gene editing using the CRISPR/Cas9 system bypasses disease-causing mutations in a gene, enabling treatment of genetic diseases linked to a single gene, such as cystic fibrosis, certain types of sickle cell anemia, and other rare diseases

Full Article

Nov 19, 2020

Elephant genetics guide conservation

New study recommends preserving wildlife corridors between protected areas to maintain genetic connections between African elephant populations

Full Article