Research
Research in the Department of Biology spans the entire breadth of biology: from ecology and evolution to molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. Our research is supported by a wide array of funding sources, including NIH, NSF and the Welch Foundation.
Many departmental faculty members actively participate in campus-wide interdisciplinary graduate research programs, including Genetics & Genomics, Neuroscience, Molecular and Environmental Plant Sciences, and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology.
Biological Resilience
Bard Profile | Bard Lab Website
Post-transcriptional RNA regulation during viral infection and tumorigenesis; function and regulation of stress-induced biomolecular condensation
Bell-Pedersen Profile | Bell-Pedersen Lab Website
Molecular genetics and genomics of circadian clocks and signaling pathways in fungi
Blackmon Profile | Blackmon Lab page
Evolutionary genetics and genomics using both theoretical and empirical approaches. Empirical methods used include bioinformatics, phylogenetics, quantitative genetics.
Ecology and conservation of birds; anthropogenic impacts on species distribution and habitat; use of novel techniques for wildlife detection; invasive species management.
Molecular basis of phenotypic variation and adaptation, Role of repetitive genome in evolution of sexual dimorphism and sexual conflict
Gomer Profile | Gomer Lab Website
Tissue size regulation, wound healing, and fibrosing diseases
Structure and biochemical organization of cells; membrane trafficking
Hardin Profile | Hardin Lab Website
Molecular biology of biological clocks in Drosophila; behavioral neurogenetics; transcriptional regulation.
Karpac Profile | Karpac Lab Website
Genetic modeling the complex relationships between nutrients, pathogens, metabolism, and immunity.
Molecular analysis of protein secretion in plants; plant genome organization and evolution
Mitchell Profile | Mitchell Lab Website
Mechanisms of interaction between stress and antibiotic resistance in gram-negative bacteria
Functional genetics of human disease variants using Drosophila models; Mechanisms of lipid droplet formation in the brain; Neuron-glia interactions
Bacterial physiology, super-resolution fluorescence microscopy
Investigating how viruses work and where they come from to better understand diseases before they happen
Paredes-Sabja Profile | Paredes-Sabja Lab Website
Molecular mechanisms of C. difficile pathogenesis and exosporium-assembly of C. difficile spores
Ramsey Profile | Ramsey Lab Website
Bacteriophage discovery and annotation, bacterial cell lysis mechanisms, phage-host interactions, viral genomics
Regulation of eukaryotic gene expression focused primarily on post-transcriptional control; functional analyses of fungi at the genome level
Sangare Profile | Sangare Lab Website
Molecular characterization of Toxoplasma gondii in vivo dissemination and its interaction with the placental barrier
Cancer bioinformatics, Cancer Biology, Metabolomics, Nanotechnology
Stress survival by the bacterium E. coli, development of an ontology of microbial phenotypes
Smith Profile | Smith Lab Website
Structural and functional characterization of natural products from microorganisms
Sorg Profile | Sorg Lab Website
Mechanisms of Clostridium difficilespore germination and bile acid resistance
Zarin Profile | Zarin Lab Website
Developmental and experimental neuroscience; Formation and maintenance of sensory-motor circuits in Drosophila; Behavioral neurogenetics, neural circuitry underlying locomotor behaviors and action selection; Transcriptional regulation of neuronal properties
