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.
Physiology & Systems Biology
Cryptic speciation; evolution of reproductive isolation; body size evolution; species packing and community assembly; range determinants; comparative physiological ecology; integrative evolutionary ecology
Neurobiology of mammalian circadian rhythms and their regulation by light-dark signals
Electrical and motile properties of microorganisms; Information content in genomes
Comparative endocrinology of reproduction and thyroid function in fish, amphibians, and reptiles
Factors that regulate synapse function and development of synapses in the animal nervous system, as revealed by high-resolution imaging, chemical characterization, and experimental manipulation of synapses
Stress survival by the bacterium E. coli, development of an ontology of microbial phenotypes
Neurobiology of animal communication: sensory-motor integration
Mechanisms of Clostridium difficilespore germination and bile acid resistance