The Orchestrators of Growth: Unveiling the Role of Hormones in Body Size Regulation

This course will study and discuss how animals grow, and why they stop growing when they reach the correct size. The focus will be on insects and how they control growth, molting and metamorphosis. We will also examine how this compares to the way mammals like ourselves control their rate of growth. We will study a variety of growth hormones and how they work, and we will design experiments that can be used to test hypotheses about how hormones control growth in different animals. We will also design hands-on experiments that we will do during week 3 to alter insect growth and make giant and small insects. At the end of this course you will be experts in insect metamorphosis and in the hormonal control of growth and body size.