Biplabendu [ Billu ] Das
Email: biplabendu [dot] das [at] gmail [dot] com
As an integrative biologist, Billu works at the intersection of chronobiology, animal behavior, and infectious diseases.
Billu is currently employed by University of California San Diego Health as a Data Scientist, working on two nationwide, longitudinal studies aimed at understanding brain and cognitive development in adolescents (ABCD Study) and newborn babies (HBCD Study).
Prior to his current employment, Billu worked with Prof. Deborah Gordon for his postdoctoral research and with Dr. Charissa de Bekker for his doctoral research trying to understand the links between biological clocks and behavioral plasticity in social organisms. List of contributed works can be found below and on Google Scholar.
Publications, Tutorials, R code
- Gordon, D.M., Steiner, E., Das, B., Walker, N.S. (2023) Harvester ant colonies differ in collective behavioural plasticity to regulate water loss. Royal Society Open Science PDF
- Das, B., Gordon, D.M. (2023) Biological rhythms and task allocation in ant colonies. Current Opinion in Insect Science PDF
- Das, B., Brouns, R., Will, I., Brachmann, A., de Bekker, C. (2023) Using RNASeq to investigate the involvement of the Ophiocordyceps clock in ant host infection and behavioral manipulation. bioRxiv PDF
- Das, B., Brachmann, A., de Bekker, C. (2023) Both behavior-manipulating and non-manipulating entomopathogenic fungi affect rhythmic gene expression in carpenter ant foragers upon infection. bioRxiv PDF
- de Bekker, C. and Das, B. (2022) Hijacking time: How Ophiocordyceps fungi could be using ant host clocks to manipulate behavior. Parasite Immunology PDF
- Code: R tutorial for building and annotating temporal gene expression networks
- Tutorial: See the step-by-step tutorial
- Das, B. and de Bekker, C. (2022)
Time-course RNASeq of Camponotus floridanus forager and nurse
ant brains indicate links between plasticity in the biological clock and
behavioral division of labor. BMC Genomics PDF
- Will, I., Das, B., Trinh, T., Brachmann, A.,
Ohm, R. A., de Bekker, C. (2019) Genetic underpinnings of host
manipulation by Ophiocordyceps as revealed by comparative
transcriptomics. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics PDF
- de Bekker, C., Will, I., Das, B., Adams, R.M.M. (2018), The ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and their parasites: effects of parasitic manipulations and host responses on ant behavioral ecology. Myrmecological News PDF