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
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