Biological Sciences

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

“A confusing experimental result almost always means you’ve stumbled upon something interesting and maybe even exciting. I think that’s what makes science fun,” says Lauren Parker Jackson, assistant professor of biological sciences. Read More

Annie Hatmaker, along with a team of researchers including her adviser, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Biological Sciences Antonis Rokas, recently published a study identifying the differences in virulence among Aspergillus species, a common human-pathogenic genus of fungi. Read More

Julián F. Hillyer, professor of biological sciences, and his research team discovered how mosquito immune and circulatory systems are related. This work may lead to the development of novel strategies that protect beneficial insects or harm detrimental ones. Read More

Amanda Lea, assistant professor of biological sciences, has been named to the 2022–24 cohort of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Azrieli Global Scholars in recognition of her outstanding early-career research and interdisciplinary work. Lea’s research interests span evolutionary biology, genomics and human health.  Read More

Vanderbilt and Arizona State University microbiologists explore the effects of feast and famine cycles on E. coli, providing insight into how the bacterial communities that reside in our guts, with our crops, in lakes and streams, and beyond become so complex. Read More

Mosquito-borne diseases like malaria represent an ongoing global health crisis of (literally) biblical proportions. LJ Zwiebel has identified the biological factors that help female mosquitos mate, suck blood and sense environmental threats. Est. reading time: 1.5 mins. Read More

Amanda Lea, assistant professor of biological sciences, has been named a 2022 Searle Scholar, an honor bestowed on 15 exceptional young faculty in the biomedical sciences and chemistry. Lea will receive $300,000 in flexible funding to support her work over the next three years. Read More

Jacob Steenwyk, a sixth-year doctoral student studying biology in The Rokas Lab, is a recipient of the 2022 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award presented by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He is the second Vanderbilt student ever to receive this honor. Read More

Vanderbilt and Chalmers University of Technology are teaming up to build a self-driving biological laboratory that uses microfluidics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a third-generation robot scientist that designs and conducts the massive number of experiments needed to fully characterize cellular signals and pathways and optimize biotechnologies. Read More

Kenneth Catania, Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences, has received the 2022 American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books in the Young Adult Science Book category for "Great Adaptations: Star-Nosed Moles, Electric Eels and Other Tales of Evolution’s Mysteries Solved." Read More

Research conducted at Vanderbilt by Faith Rovenolt and Ann Tate has been published in a new study in The American Naturalist that models how parasites interact to affect their host’s behavior. The results of the research reinforce an understanding of the influence of disease in community dynamics. Read More

Audrey Arner, a first-year Ph.D. student, recently earned a pilot research grant from Vanderbilt’s Evolutionary Studies Initiative to study the evolutionary mismatch hypothesis in Malaysia. The basis of the research seeks to understand how genetic characteristics that were beneficial to communities in the past could be harmful in a modern environment.   Read More

Over the past decade, Larisa DeSantis, paleontologist and associate professor of biological sciences, has worked with a team of former Vanderbilt undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and experts from across the globe to show how species can be both generalized at the species level and specialized individually—a probable key to their success. Read More

Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver joins six others at Vanderbilt as 2021 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society. Read More

Looking at prehistoric organisms allows Simon Darroch and his students to describe how, when and why complex life evolved on this planet. Their work is a piece of the puzzle in understanding how likely it is that we’ll find complex life beyond Earth. Read More