Biological Sciences

Carlos Taboada, assistant professor of biological sciences, was among the 2024 Packard Fellows for Science and Engineering announced on Tuesday, Oct. 15. At the Taboada Lab, he and his team investigate the chemical, physiological and physical mechanisms that create different colors in frogs and the remarkable transparency of glassfrogs. Read More

New research shows that warming and aging act as a one-two punch, lowering mosquito lifespans and fanning the flames of bacterial infections. These findings highlight how climate change could alter the risks of disease spread by mosquitoes. Read More

The Creanza Lab, along with alumnus Matt Wilkins, BA’06, created a birdsong identification lesson plan for middle and high school students. The game show lets participants identify which birds they can hear in various pop culture media, such as movies, music, or video games. Read More

The Vanderbilt Graduate Student Council has announced the winners of the 2024 Graduate Leadership Anchor Awards, honoring the hard work and leadership of Vanderbilt graduate students schoolwide. This year’s awards recognize outstanding service, mentorship, departmental leadership, research and best overall. Read More

A Vanderbilt scientific team has succeeded in adjusting the daily biological clock of cyanobacteria, making the blue-green algae a more prolific producer of renewable fuels, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, like insulin. Read More

Beckman Scholar Charu Balamurugan, an undergraduate researcher in the Rokas lab at Vanderbilt University, has shed light on the intricate evolutionary patterns governing secondary metabolite biosynthesis in fungi. Balamurugan delved deep into the genomes of Penicillium species, uncovering fascinating insights into the conservation and evolution of biosynthetic gene clusters and associated resistance genes. Read More

Justin Critchlow, a recent Ph.D. student in Ann Tate’s lab, just published a paper with the labmates Arun Prakash, Katherine Zhong, and Tate, uncovering the intricacies of beetle immune dynamics. This paper sheds light on the dynamics of survival, resilience, and the profound complexities inherent in evolutionary adaptations. Read More

Kyle David, an NSF postdoctoral fellow in the Rokas lab, and co-authors published a new paper, “Saccharomycotina yeasts defy longstanding macroecological patterns” in the high-impact journal PNAS. This paper, which looks at the ecology of 186 species of yeast, provides evidence that not all life-forms follow the rules. Read More

A study by Vanderbilt biology graduate student Lindsay Martin and Centennial Professor of Biological Sciences Julián Hillyer found that mosquitoes age more quickly when temperatures are higher. This aging, in turn, weakens the mosquito immune system and makes them more likely to get infected with disease. Read More

Lars Plate, assistant professor of chemistry and biological sciences, has received a $2.76 million collaborative grant to investigate medical therapy for people with cystic fibrosis. The interdisciplinary project brings together teams with varied expertise in computational structural biology, proteomics, biophysics, and physiology in hopes of improving the quality of life for those afflicted with the genetic disease. Read More

Widespread trust in vaccines often leads to higher vaccination rates, but vaccine shortages can deter even those with confidence in vaccines. Furthermore, while vaccine mandates can create an appearance of universal vaccination, people may remain hesitant, resulting in lower compliance than anticipated. Read More

The fellowship program is intended to serve as a pathway and source of mentorship for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars across the Southeastern Conference to prepare them for tenured faculty positions.  This cohort of Vanderbilt scholars will attend the upcoming 2023-24 SEC Emerging Scholars conference Oct. 1–4 at the University of Arkansas.   Read More

Nicole Creanza and Yakov Pichkar explore whether subtle cultural differences within a language mirror genetic structure within a population. The answer: Even small cultural differences like dialect can influence the spread of people and genes. Read More

Vanderbilt biologists Nicole Creanza and Kerri-Ann Anderson have developed a new mathematical model, rooted in cultural evolution, that represents vaccine hesitancy as a belief that can influence, but not perfectly predict, whether parents will decide to vaccinate their children. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers Amanda Lea and Wenhan Zhu have been named 2023 Pew Biomedical Scholars. The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. Read More

Marie-Claire Harrison, a graduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences, has been named the 2023 recipient of the Brighter Ventures Student Award. The Brighter Ventures Student Award supports Ph.D. students interested in the application of artificial intelligence in the biomedical research field. Read More

The labs of Lauren Jackson and Todd Graham recently published a study in the Journal of Cell Biology describing a significant interaction between an essential protein complex used for protein and lipid transport—the COPI complex—and its regulator protein. Read More

Graduate student Reese Martin and his doctoral advisor, Ann Tate, assistant professor of biological sciences, used theoretical modeling to identify a potential relationship between genetic pleiotropy and the evolution of immune responses. Read More

Stephen Ferguson, first-author of a new paper with his postdoctoral advisor, Laurence Zwiebel, along with two undergraduates associated with the lab, Isaac Bakis and Nicholas Edwards, confirmed the existence of a specialized soldier caste within an ant species. Read More

For his work on zoonotic threat mitigation, Lars Plate was awarded $50,000 from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Read More