Ithaca-based Cornell University biologist Matthew Zipple has been named a finalist for a $10,000 Blavatnik Regional Award in Life Sciences for research that places laboratory mice in outdoor enclosures to study how their surroundings affect behavior and physiology.
Zipple, a postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology and behavior and former Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow, was recognized for testing how mice respond when they can roam, burrow, climb and interact under more natural conditions, according to Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences. The enclosures are in a field near Cornell's Ithaca campus.
The Blavatnik Regional Awards recognize postdoctoral researchers in life sciences, chemical sciences, and physical sciences and engineering. The Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences named three laureates and six finalists this year from 176 nominations representing 35 institutions. Each finalist receives $10,000 in unrestricted funds; each laureate receives $30,000.
The honorees were recognized Oct. 6 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Zipple was one of two life sciences finalists, according to the award organizers' announcement.
What the outdoor experiments have shown
Zipple's work uses enclosed fields rather than standard laboratory cages, giving the mice room to find food and navigate weather, seasons and social encounters. The award citation credited that approach with examining how natural settings and social dynamics influence molecular aging, emotions and physiology. Those are findings and research questions in mice, not demonstrated effects in people.
In a 2025 study described by Cornell, researchers compared mice kept in the laboratory with mice moved to outdoor fields. The outdoor group showed a much weaker fear response in a maze commonly used to assess mouse anxiety, including mice that had developed a fear response before being moved. Cornell reported that the response changed after as little as a week in the field.
Zipple said the results raise questions about how well a standard laboratory setting captures the effects of physical and social environments on an animal's behavior and health. He has also used the outdoor setting to study early experiences in male mice and the behavior of female mice, Cornell said.
The 2025 study did not test people, and the mouse results do not establish a way to treat human anxiety. Cornell researchers said further work could examine how long mice need to live outdoors for their fear response to change and whether their age matters.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to news@fingerlakes1.com.
