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 the newly formed faculty of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavioral Biology.
Cell, Molecular, & Developmental Biology
Cell and developmental biology; developmental genetics; development and differentiation in unicellular organisms; intracellular pattern formation
Phytoplankton ecology; phytoplankton community structure, population dynamics, and diversity
Sex determination in Drosophila; temporal and transcriptional controls in development; RNA silencing mechanisms
Molecular biology of biological clocks in Drosophila; behavioral neurogenetics; transcriptional regulation.
Molecular analysis of protein secretion in plants; plant genome organization and evolution
Molecular genetics and genomics of monarch butterfly circadian clocks and long-distance migration
Nuclear pore complex assembly and nuclear envelope dynamics using yeast as a model system
Regulation of eukaryotic gene expression focused primarily on post-transcriptional control; functional analyses of fungi at the genome level
Structural and functional characterization of natural products from microorganisms
Mechanisms of Clostridium difficilespore germination and bile acid resistance
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
Developmental neurobiology; molecular determinants of synapse formation; neural regeneration; biological clock control of neural signaling