Thirty-five years ago, Dr. Wilkinson found himself lying in the base of a hollowed tree observing vampire bats and their social behaviors. What he noticed would disrupt scientists’ fundamental understanding of cooperation among animals. When specific bats were unable to obtain a blood meal, other bats were happy to share what they had stored. This however was even more shocking when Dr. Wilkinson found that unlike most cases of apparent altruism in animals, often the bats that gave had no familial relationship to the bat that needed food; it looked as if sharing was based upon an expectation of future assistance. Now, as a Professor of Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park, Dr. Gerald Wilkinson continues to study bats and other species through the lens of evolutionary biology. It is his hope that through the study of mechanisms underlying cooperation, he and his team may provide novel insight into the factors favoring or maintaining cooperation in other species, including humans. Such findings could also be relevant for understanding cooperation at other levels of biological organization, including genes and cells. Imperfect cooperation within a body typically can result in a serious disorder or disease, such as cancer.

Dr. Wilkinson’s unique attempt to study the behavior of animals in the wild in order to determine genetic causes in incredibly diverse organisms, like bats and flies, has set him apart from other researchers within his field. His study of both cooperation and sexual selection both support ways in which organism’s molecular mechanisms challenge Mendelian predictions. Thus, his work offers a perspective that challenges our textbook understandings of genetics and behavior and has pushed the field to reassess previously held beliefs. It is with his keen observational skills, eye for the curiosities of the natural world, and the rigor in which he approaches science that his work has resulted in groundbreaking shifts in evolutionary biology. With continued research, Dr. Wilkinson and his team hope to gain knowledge about fundamental processes using appropriate, and sometimes unusual, organisms that can provide key insights due to their unique biologies.

Current research includes:

• Sexual Selection and Genomic Conflict: Dr. Wilkinson is studying sexual selection and genomic conflict in a group of flies known as stalk-eyed flies. Chromosomes in these organisms do not always cooperate as Mendel would predict; instead, some males only pass X chromosomes and produce all daughters. This is a case of sex chromosome meiotic drive, which is a type of genomic conflict. Dr. Wilkinson is actively trying to determine the causes and the consequences of this conflict at the level of the genome and the organism. His work may help to develop mechanisms to genetically modify, including the sterilization of pest organisms. It is also relevant for understanding some human disorders associated with non-Mendelian transmission.

• Cooperation: Dr. Wilkinson’s current work is related to understanding cooperation in different species, including vampire bats, Mexican fishing bats and Asian elephants. As a graduate student, Dr. Wilkinson discovered that vampire bats will share food with other bats who previously shared food with them. Recently, he and his students have been studying vampire bats in a captive facility in Michigan where his original results have been confirmed and extended. Such research raises questions about the behaviors across a wider range of species and the level of cooperation animals will participate in as they interact with others. In so doing, he can help provide insight into the factors favoring or maintaining cooperation in other species, including humans, at several levels of biological organization.

• Evolution of Cancer: In collaboration with colleagues, Dr. Wilkinson is applying evolutionary logic to understand where cancer has evolved. By surveying the literature to find cancer-like phenomenon in independent lineages of multicellular organisms, he and his collaborators are trying to identify mechanisms that either prevent or promote uncontrolled cell proliferation, i.e. cancer. While it may not be immediately obvious, many of the factors that favor cooperation among organisms are relevant for understanding cooperation among cells. When such cooperation breaks down, cancer occurs. Thus, learning how other organisms control cellular conflict could provide insight into how cancer might be mitigated.