Ken Field

Ken Field

Professor of Biology
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Educational Background

  • B.S., University of Vermont
  • Ph.D., Cornell University
  • Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of California, San Francisco

Teaching Interests

  • Data Science and Bioinformatics
  • Integrative Biology
  • Immunology

Research Interests

  • Immune responses in bats
    -- Zoonotic diseases in bats
    -- Hibernation and immune responses
    -- North American bats affected by white-nose syndrome

Lab website

Recent Activities

INVITED PRESENTATIONS (PAST 5 YEARS)

  • “Transcriptomic Responses to Coronavirus Infections in African and North American bats,” 3rd International Symposium on Infectious Diseases of Bats, 2022.
  • “Tearing down the Tyranny of Content: Rebuilding the Biology Curriculum,” Bucknell Teaching and Learning Center Friday Learning Series, 2022.
  • “The Science and Politics of Vaccines,” Bucknell Institute for Public Policy, Panelist, 2021.
  • “Whole-transcriptome gene expression in African fruit bats: life history and parasitic infection,” Wild and Comparative Immunology Workshop, 2020.
  • “Contact Trace: The Surveillance of Public Health,” Tech + Social Justice Workshop, Yale University, Center for Collaborative Arts and Media, Panelist, 2020.
  • “The challenges of transcriptome-wide comparisons across species and genera,” Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Symposium Speaker, 2019.
  • “The scary future for bats in North America,” Ohio Dominican University, Seminar Speaker, 2019.
  • “I Like Big Data: What Transcriptomics can tell us about Bats, Birds, Bees, and Vampires,” Biology Department Seminar Series, Bucknell University, 2018.
  • “Bioinformatics and the challenges of visualizing big data,” Applied Mathematics Seminar Series, Bucknell University, 2018. 
  • “Hibernation affects transcriptomic responses to the pathogen that causes white-nose syndrome in bats,” Biology Department Seminar Series, Fordham University, 2018.

Selected Publications

*Denotes Bucknell Student Author

SK Chothe, P Jakka, VS Boorla, S Ramasamy, A Gontu, RH Nissly, J Brown, G Turner, BJ Sewall, DM Reeder, KA Field, JB Engiles, S Amirthalingam, A Ravichandran, L LaBella, MS Nair, CD Maranas, SV Kuchipudi. Little Brown Bats (Myotis lucifugus) Support the Binding of SARS-CoV-2 Spike and Are Likely Susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Viruses, 15(5):1103, doi:10.3390/v15051103 (2023).

F Whiting-Fawcett, KA Field, SJ Puechmaille, AS Blomberg, TM Lilley, “Heterothermy and antifungal responses in bats,” Current Opinion in Microbiology, 62, 61-67 doi:10.1016/j.mib.2021.05.002 (2021).

MC Pizzorno, KA Field, AL Kobokovich*, PL Martin*, RA Gupta*, R Mammone*, D Rovnyak, EA Capaldi, “Transcriptomic Responses of the Honey Bee Brain to Infection with Deformed Wing Virus,” Viruses, 13(2), 287, doi:10.3390/v13020287 (2021).

TM Lilley, IW Wilson, KA Field, DM Reeder, ME Vodzak*, GG Turner, A Kurta, AS Blomberg, S Hoff, C Herzog, BJ Sewall, S Paterson, “Genome-wide changes in genetic diversity among populations of Myotis lucifugus affected by white-nose syndrome,” G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, 10(6), 2007-2020, doi:10.1534/g3.119.400966 (2020).

TM Lilley, JM Prokkola, AS Blomberg, S Paterson, JS Johnson, GG Turner, T Bartonička, E Bachorec, DM Reeder, KA Field, “Resistance is futile: RNA-sequencing reveals differing responses to bat fungal pathogen in Nearctic Myotis lucifugus and Palearctic Myotis myotis,” Oecologia, 191(2), 295-309, doi:10.1007/s00442-019-04499-6 (2019).

K Hirose, AY Payumo, S Cutie, A Hoang, H Zhang, R Guyot, D Lunn, RB Bigley, H Yu, J Wang, M Smith, E Gillett, SE Muroy, T Schmid, E Wilson, KA Field, DM Reeder, M Maden, MM Yartsev, MJ Wolfgang, F Grützner, TS Scanlan, LI Szweda, R Buffenstein, G Hu, F Flamant, JE Olgin, GN Huang, “Evidence for hormonal control of heart regenerative capacity during endothermy acquisition,” Science 364 (6436), 184-188, doi:10.1126/science.aar2038 (2019).

KA Field, BJ Sewall, JM Prokkola, GG Turner, M Gagnon, TM Lilley, JP White, JS Johnson, C Hauer, DM Reeder, “Effect of torpor on host transcriptomic responses to a fungal pathogen in hibernating bats,” Molecular Ecology 27 (18), 3727-3743 doi:10.1111/mec.14827 (2019).

SM Reeder*, JM Palmer, JM Prokkola, TM Lilley, DM Reeder, KA Field, “Pseudogymnoascus destructans transcriptome changes during white-nose syndrome infections,” Virulence 8 (8), 1695-1707 doi:10.1080/21505594.2017.1342910 (2017). 

TM Lilley, JM Prokkola, JS Johnson, EJ Rogers*, S Gronsky*, A Kurta, DM Reeder, KA Field, “Immune responses in hibernating little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) with white-nose syndrome,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 284: 2232 doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.2232 (2017). 

KA Field, JS Johnson, TM Lilley, SM Reeder*, EJ Rogers*, MJ Behr, DM Reeder, “The white-nose syndrome transcriptome: activation of anti-fungal host responses in wing tissue of hibernating bats,” PLOS Pathogens 11(10): e1005168. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1005168 (2015).

See a full list of publications

Recent Grants and Awards

  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH R01, “Tolerance and resistance responses of African bats to viral antigens: Immunological tradeoffs in zoonotic reservoir hosts,” $2,994,484, Co-PI with Dr. DeeAnn Reeder (Bucknell University), 2021-2026. 
  • NSF RAPID Grant, “Immune Responses to CoV Infections in African and North American Bats,” $200,000, Co-PI with Dr. DeeAnn Reeder, 2020-2023.
  • NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program, “Acquisition of a Quadrupole/Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer with Ion Mobility Separations for Faculty and Student Research in the Susquehanna Valley,” $391,544, Senior Personnel, 2020-2023.
  • NSF Campus Cyberinfrastructure Program, “Bucknell Science DMZ Network Design and Implementation,” $399,200, Senior Personnel, 2017-2019.
  • NIH R21 Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant, “Transcriptomics of immunity and disease in African Fruit Bats- important zoonotic reservoirs,” $220,229, PI with Dr. DeeAnn Reeder, 2017-2019.

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