I am an associate professor in the Integrative Anatomy group in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences at the University of Missouri School of Medicine.
PhD in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 2003
Brown University
BS in Biology, 1995
Wake Forest University
I am an anatomist / functional morphologist / occasional paleontologist / biomechanist and part of the Integrative Anatomy group in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences at the University of Missouri School of Medicine.
My research focuses on vertebrate musculoskeletal physiology, form, and function in the contexts of animal locomotion and evolution. In my work, I integrate studies across multiple scales from micro-scale structural materials of bone to macro-scale whole bone morphology to evolutionary changes across vertebrate taxa and with comparisons to extinct organisms.
I am active in the MU Evolutionary Studies group. I’m also the Director of Graduate Admissions for the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences.
From 2007-2012, I was an assistant and then associate professor in the Department of Biology at California State University, San Bernardino. Prior to that I was a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University and the University of California, Riverside.
Way back in history, I was an undergraduate at Wake Forest University and then a doctoral student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University. Here’s a link to my thesis on WorldCat: Morphology, evolution, and function of the avian hallux. If you are interested in the evolution of avian feet and want a copy, just email me.
Nick started in the lab as a summer fellow as part of the Math in Life Science Freshman Interest Group. He continued as a C3 Hughes Research Fellow. As part of his project, Nick helped to develop a video about research in the lab.
Nick is working on a PhD in Engineering at Oregon State University.
Kyle visited the lab from Michigan State University in Summer 2015 as an MU School of Medicine Summer Research Fellow.
Kyle constructed a 3-point bending apparatus for mouse femora (which he is seen here in the process of constructing). In his project, he compared the bending strength of femora from mice with the Myhc4Minimsc-/- mutation with two inbred strains.
Imran completed his Biological Sciences Honors project in the lab on “Testing axial loading in tail and lumbar vertebrae of mice selected for exercise”.
Michael was a strategic communications major in the MU School of Journalism and a C3 Hughes Research Fellow. As part of his project, Michael helped to develop a video about research in the lab.
Tarrin visited the lab in Summer, 2014 as an MU School of Medicine Summer Research Fellow from Xavier University, New Orleans. She studied the bending properties of feather rachises for her summer research project.
Diana visited the lab in Summer, 2013 as an MU School of Medicine Summer Research Fellow from Indiana University. She worked on mineral apposition rates in high-runner mice.
Some recent publications:
IA put on a strong showing at the annual meeting of the American Association of Anatomists in Chicago (part of Experimental Biology 2017).
Effects of altered oxygen levels on bone structure in alligators
Effects of exercise and artificial selection on skeletal morphology and bone mechanics in house mice
Understanding the evolution of head structure and function
Understanding the structure and function and avian feathers
I am part of a large group of faculty and graduate trainees who teach first year clinically oriented human anatomy in the University of Missouri School of Medicine. I was involved in transitioning our large undergraduate human anatomy course to a “flipped classroom” format.
Integrative Anatomy also offers graduate level courses in Evolutionary Biology and Evolutionary Morphology, which are also popular with students outside of our graduate program.
I have been teaching statistics and data analysis for life sciences periodically for the last few years. I’m a strong believer in demystifying analysis (particularly using R and/or python) and reproducible research. Dr. Elizabeth King (MU Biological Sciences) and I co-developed a graduate course in quantitative analysis. It is freely available online (https://github.com/kmiddleton/quant_methods).
Collaborating with Randall Pruim (Calvin College), I developed an R package (abd) to accompany the first edition of The Analysis of Biological Data by Michael Whitlock and Dolph Schluter.
I have several more R packages in development. All are available on GitHub.