Bin-Yan Hsu
PhD
biyahs@utu.fi Office: 163 ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3799-0509 |
Maternal effects; maternal hormones; thyroid hormones; androgens; phenotypic and developmental plasticity; life-history variation
2016-2019: Postdoctoral researcher, University of Turku, Finland
I am an evolutionary ecologist and
physiologist with research interests encompassing phenotypic and
developmental plasticity as well as life-history variation. Starting
from my PhD, my research has mostly focused on transgenerational
plasticity induced by maternal hormones, particularly testosterone and
more recently thyroid hormones. More specifically, I am interested in understanding the fitness consequences of maternal hormones on offspring and their ecological and evolutionary significance, whether and how maternal hormones exert differential effects on offspring depending on environmental contexts, how maternal hormone transfer vary at different levels of biological organization, the physiological control of maternal hormone transfer, inter-specific differences and associations of maternal hormones with life-history variation.
I have used integrated approaches to
tackle theese questoins, including experiments using
captive and wild animals, statistical modelling to partition variation
at different levels of biological organizations, as well as comparative
methods.
Recently, my research interest has been gradually expanding to the evolutionary ecology and physiology of endogenous thyroid hormones
and its association with life-history variation, other non-hormonal
forms of maternal effects, the application of molecular and genetic
approach to study the actions of maternal hormones, as well as interest
to use other terrestrial vertebrates (reptiles, amphibians, or even
mammals) as my model.
While I do not teach my own courses at the moment, from time to time I participate in teaching data interpretation, presentation and analysis, and regularly supervise students who participate in our research for animal-handling skills and statstical analyses.
- Same data, different analysts: variation in effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and evolutionary biology (2025)
- BMC Biology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - From maternal glucocorticoid and thyroid hormones to epigenetic regulation of offspring gene expression: An experimental study in a wild bird species (2023)
- Evolutionary Applications
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Prenatal thyroid hormones accelerate postnatal growth and telomere shortening in wild great tits (2023)
- Journal of Experimental Biology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Altricial Bird Early-Stage Embryos Express the Molecular "Machinery" to Respond to and Modulate Maternal Thyroid Hormone Cues (2022)
- Physiological and Biochemical Zoology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Effect of prenatal glucocorticoids and thyroid hormones on developmental plasticity of mitochondrial aerobic metabolism, growth and survival: an experimental test in wild great tits (2022)
- Journal of Experimental Biology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Maternally transferred thyroid hormones and life-history variation in birds (2022)
- Journal of Animal Ecology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Author Correction: Testing for context-dependent effects of prenatal thyroid hormones on offspring survival and physiology: an experimental temperature manipulation (Scientific Reports, (2020), 10, 1, (14563), 10.1038/s41598-020-71511-y) (2021)
- Scientific Reports
(Other publication) - Endocrinology of thermoregulation in birds in a changing climate (2021)
- Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Is maternal thyroid hormone deposition subject to a trade-off between self and egg because of iodine? An experimental study in rock pigeon (2021)
- Journal of Experimental Biology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Born to be young? Prenatal thyroid hormones increase early-life telomere length in wild collared flycatchers (2020)
- Biology Letters
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Explaining discrepancies in the study of maternal effects: the role of context and embryo (2020)
- Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
(A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal ) - Manipulation of Prenatal Thyroid Hormones Does Not Affect Growth or Physiology in Nestling Pied Flycatchers (2020)
- Physiological and Biochemical Zoology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Prenatal Transfer of Gut Bacteria in Rock Pigeon (2020)
- Microorganisms
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Testing different forms of regulation of yolk thyroid hormone transfer in pied flycatchers (2020)
- Journal of Experimental Biology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Testing for context-dependent effects of prenatal thyroid hormones on offspring survival and physiology: an experimental temperature manipulation (2020)
- Scientific Reports
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Testing the short-and long-term effects of elevated prenatal exposure to different forms of thyroid hormones (2020)
- PeerJ
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Between- and Within-Individual Variation of Maternal Thyroid Hormone Deposition in Wild Great Tits (Parus major) (2019)
- American Naturalist
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Plastic but repeatable: Rapid adjustments of mitochondrial function and density during reproduction in a wild bird species (2019)
- Biology Letters
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Revisiting mechanisms and functions of prenatal hormone-mediated maternal effects using avian species as a model (2019)
- Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences
(A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal ) - Transgenerational endocrine disruption: Does elemental pollution affect egg or nestling thyroid hormone levels in a wild songbird? (2019)
- Environmental Pollution
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)