Nadia Ayoub to Headline Second Beyond the Page Event The John T. Herwick, M.D. Professor of Biology will discuss circadian light sensitivity in spiders.

By Lily Caldwell
November 4, 2026

Nadia Ayoub, John T. Herwick, M.D. Professor of Biology at Washington and Lee University, will present a lecture titled “Circadian Light Sensitivity in Spiders” as part of the Beyond the Page: Milestone Works by Faculty series at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10 in the Lemon Room located in Tucker Hall.

The series, open exclusively to the university community, celebrates significant scholarly and creative achievements by faculty members across disciplines. Ayoub will be introduced by Natalia Toporikova, associate professor of biology at Washington and Lee. Ayoub’s lecture will be followed by a reception.

“I feel honored to participate in Beyond the Page,” Ayoub said. “I hope I can share a little bit of the glorious diversity of the natural world with our campus community. And I am excited to highlight the joy and intellectual stimulation of working with many W&L students and my fantastic colleague Natalia Toporikova.”

Ayoub will discuss her recent publication, “Phase response curve and RNA-sequencing demonstrate spiders’ sensitivity to light and pinpoint candidate light-responsive genes,” published alongside Toporikova and collaborators at Eastern Tennessee University. Her talk will examine the mechanisms by which spiders adjust to changing light conditions. She will also describe ongoing experiments to investigate molecular circadian rhythms in spiders.

“Almost all living organisms exhibit daily cycles, from the sleep-wake cycle in humans, to the production of asexual spores in bread mold, to nightly web building in spiders,” Ayoub said. “These cycles are considered circadian if, in nature, they match day-night conditions, yet in the lab they persist under constant dark with a period close to, but not exactly, 24 hours. Spiders are remarkable in possessing a broad range of periods of activity (17 to 28 hours) in constant dark but always maintain a 24-hour period in normal day-night conditions.”

Ayoub joined W&L’s faculty in 2009, following a post-doctoral fellowship through the National Institutes of Health at the University of California, Riverside. She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and a doctorate from the University of Tennessee.