Eldon Ball obtained his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a PhD in Marine Biology from University of California, Santa Barbara. He came to Canberra to join the Department of Neurobiology as a Research Fellow in 1971 and has been a member of several different Departments and Groups since, as his research interests and the organization of the school have changed. Much of his research career has been spent studying arthropod sensory systems and development. His major current interest is the molecular basis of coral biology, including comparative genomics, development and stress responses

Eldon Ball and David Hayward use molecular tools to investigate many aspects of coral biology including comparative genomics, development, stress responses and calcification. Most of our projects are in collaboration with Professor David Miller and Dr Sylvain Forêt of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Townsville.

Weiss Y, Forêt S, Hayward DC, Ainsworth T, King R, Ball EE, Miller DJ. (2013) The acute transcriptional response of the coral Acropora millepora to immune challenge:expression of GiMAP/IAN genes links the innate immune responses of corals with those of mammals and plants. BMC Genomics 14:400 Okubo N, Mezaki T, Nozawa Y, Nakano Y, Lien YT, Fukami H, Hayward DC, Ball EE. (2013) Comparative embryology of eleven species of stony corals (Scleractinia). PLoS One 8:e84115 Moya A, Huisman L, Ball EE, Hayward DC, Grasso LC, Chua CM, Woo HN, Gattuso JP, Forêt S, Miller DJ. (2012) Whole transcriptome analysis of the coral Acropora millepora reveals complex responses to CO?-driven acidification during the initiation of calcification. Molecular Ecology 21:2440-54. Attenborough RM, Hayward DC, Kitahara MV, Miller DJ, Ball EE. (2012) A "Neural" Enzyme in Nonbilaterian Animals and Algae: Preneural Origins for Peptidylglycine α-Amidating Monooxygenase. Molecular Biology & Evolution 29:3095–3109 doi:10.1093/molbev/mss114 Grasso LC, Negri AP, F?ret S, Saint R, Hayward DC, Miller DJ, Ball EE. (2011) The biology of coral metamorphosis: molecular responses of larvae to inducers of settlement and metamorphosis. Developmental Biology 353:411-9. Hayward DC, Hetherington S, Behm CA, Grasso LC, Forêt S, Miller DJ, Ball EE. (2011) Differential gene expression at coral settlement and metamorphosis--a subtractive hybridization study. PLoS One 6: e26411. Foret S, Knack B, Houliston E, Momose T, Manuel M, Queinnec E, Hayward DC, Ball EE, Miller DJ. (2010) New tricks with old genes: the genetic bases of novel cnidarian traits. Trends in Genetics 26:154-158. Ball EE, Miller, DJ. (2010) Putting placozoans on the (phylogeographic) map. Molecular Ecology 19:2181-3 Reyes-Bermudez A, Lin Z, Hayward DC, Miller DJ, Ball EE. (2009) Differential expression of three galaxin-related genes during settlement and metamorphosis in the scleractinian coral Acropora millepora. BMC Evol Biol 9:178 Grasso LC, Maindonald J, Rudd S, Hayward DC, Saint R, Miller DJ, Ball EE. (2008) Microarray analysis identifies candidate genes for key roles in coral development. BMC Genomics. 9:540 Ball EE, de Jong DM, Schierwater B, Shinzato C, Hayward DC, Miller DJ. (2007) Implications of cnidarian gene expression patterns for the origins of bilaterality – is the glass half full or half empty? Integrative and Comparative Biology. 47:701-711.