• B.Sc., 1983, University of Aukland, New Zealand, Biology.
• M.S., 1987, University of Aukland, New Zealand, Cancer Biology.
• Ph.D., 1993, University of Melbourne, Australia, Developmental Biology.
• Postdoctoral research: Columbia University, The Rockefeller University.

Joined the department in 2005.

Associations: Faculty of Neuroscience.

T. Lints Lab Webpage

Thierry Lints
Assistant Professor

3258 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-3258

Office:
Biological Sciences Building West
Room 111A
979-862-4143

Lab:
Biological Sciences Building West
Room 111
979-845-3212

Fax: 979-845-2891
Email: tlints@bio.tamu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

We are exploring the molecular basis of a complex, learned, natural behavior by studying song imitation in birds (in particular, zebra finches). Like human infant speech, many birdsongs are mastered through a developmental learning process requiring intensive vocal practice. The prodigious output of juvenile song allows us to chart, in real time, the imitative progress of the bird based on highly quantifiable acoustic features of the sounds produced. The central problem we are grappling with is: How does developmental and experience-driven regulation of gene expression map on to trajectories of vocal change? The approaches we are taking include: 1) microarray analysis of transcriptional profiles of song nuclei after the imitative process has been triggered by a single song training session, 2) the development of whole brain 3D maps to describe the spatial dynamics of metabolic and transcriptional activity during vocal development, and 3) perturbation of the imitation process by RNA interference and other means.

1. Wada K, Howard JT, McConnell P, Whitney O, Lints T, Rivas MV, Horita H, Patterson MA, White SA, Scharff C, Haesler S, Zhao S, Sakaguchi H, Hagiwara M, Shiraki T, Hirozane-Kishikawa T, Skene P, Hayashizaki Y, Carninci P & Jarvis ED (2006) A molecular neuroethological approach for identifying and characterizing a cascade of behaviorally regulated genes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103:15212-7 Full text
2. Derégnaucourt S, Mitra PP, Fehér O, Maul KK, Lints TJ & Tchernichovski O (2004) Song development: in search of the error-signal. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1016:364-76 Full text
3. Tchernichovski O, Lints TJ, Deregnaucourt S, Cimenser A & Mitra PP (2004) Studying the song development process: rationale and methods. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1016:348-63 Full text
4. Haesler S, Wada K, Nshdejan A, Morrisey EE, Lints T, Jarvis ED & Scharff C (2004) FoxP2 expression in avian vocal learners and non-learners. J Neurosci 24:3164-75 Full text
5. Tchernichovski O, Mitra PP, Lints T & Nottebohm F (2001) Dynamics of the vocal imitation process: how a zebra finch learns its song. Science 291:2564-9 Full text
6. Bates MD, Schatzman LC, Lints T, Hamlin PE, Harvey RP & Potter SS (2000) Structural and functional characterization of the mouse Hlx homeobox gene. Mamm Genome 11:836-42 Full text
7. Tchernichovski O, Lints T, Mitra PP & Nottebohm F (1999) Vocal imitation in zebra finches is inversely related to model abundance. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 96:12901-4 Full text
8. Dale JK, Vesque C, Lints TJ, Sampath TK, Furley A, Dodd J & Placzek M (1997) Cooperation of BMP7 and SHH in the induction of forebrain ventral midline cells by prechordal mesoderm. Cell 90:257-69 Full text
9. Lints TJ, Hartley L, Parsons LM & Harvey RP (1996) Mesoderm-specific expression of the divergent homeobox gene Hlx during murine embryogenesis. Dev Dyn 205:457-70 Full text
10. Hentsch B, Lyons I, Li R, Hartley L, Lints TJ, Adams JM & Harvey RP (1996) Hlx homeo box gene is essential for an inductive tissue interaction that drives expansion of embryonic liver and gut. Genes Dev 10:70-9 Full text