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 interdepartmental graduate and research programs, including Genetics, Neuroscience, Molecular and Environmental Plant Sciences, and Ecology, Evolution, and Behavioral Biology.
Mechanisms of Biological Resilience
The Mechanisms of Biological Resilience (MBR) research group in the Department of Biology studies the compensatory mechanisms which living organisms and ecosystems employ to mitigate external stress and alleviate their adverse effects. The MBR group consists of faculty from diverse disciplines, including microbiology, plant biology, neurobiology, physiology, systems biology, genetics, and genomics.
Bell-Pedersen Profile | Bell-Pedersen Lab Website
Molecular genetics and genomics of circadian clocks and signaling pathways in fungi
Cryptic speciation; evolution of reproductive isolation; body size evolution; species packing and community assembly; range determinants; comparative physiological ecology; integrative evolutionary ecology
Molecular basis of phenotypic variation and adaptation, Role of repetitive genome in evolution of sexual dimorphism and sexual conflict
Genetic and Molecular analysis of the primary sex determination mechanism of Drosophila melanogaster
Garcia Profile | Garcia Lab Website
Genetics of behavior and development in C. elegans
Gomer Profile | Gomer Lab Website
Tissue size regulation, wound healing, and fibrosing diseases
Structure and biochemical organization of cells; membrane trafficking
Uncovering mechanistic links between emotional states, biological timing, sleep, and development of chronic diseases using interdisciplinary approaches.
Mitchell Profile | Mitchell Lab Website
Mechanisms of interaction between stress and antibiotic resistance in gram-negative bacteria
Bacterial physiology, super-resolution fluorescence microscopy
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
Cancer bioinformatics, Cancer Biology, Metabolomics, Nanotechnology
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
Strader Profile | Strader Lab Website
Evolutionary drivers of resiliency, molecular ecology, marine invertebrates
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