Biological Sciences

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered a new insect repellent compound that may be thousands of times stronger than DEET, the active ingredient currently in common mosquito repellents. This new compound is the first of its kind in the world.  … Read More

Joelton Middle School students visited MRBIII to learn more about careers in science. (Susan Urmy/Vanderbilt) During a visit to campus on March 12, members of the Joelton Middle School Art2STEM club – an after-school organization for middle school girls that highlights the importance of creativity in the… Read More

Julian Hillyer is the 2012 recipient of one of the Entomological Society of America’s annual recognition award. Read More

Learn about an unusual research lab on Vanderbilt’s campus which employs almost entirely undergraduate students. Read more: Biology Lab Utilizes Undergraduate Research to Study Protein Diseases   Produced by Vanderbilt student Harrison Dreves. Read More

Light and the hormone melatonin may play important roles in the developing brain. Read More

A team of scientists has taken a major step toward developing robot biologists. They have shown that their system, the Automated Biology Explorer, can solve a complicated biology problem from scratch. Read More

Vanderbilt graduate student Cassidy Cobbs has investigated recent news reports linking cell phone emissions with bee mortality and found that there is no scientific basis for the claims. Read More

Photo of a true blue-eyed cicada (Matt Weiss, Cicada Mania) Have you heard the latest buzz going round that scientists at Vanderbilt are paying as much as $3,000 for specimens of the rare blue-eyed cicada? If you have, I hope you haven’t spent a lot of time… Read More

Students at BSC111c poster session discussing project that determined the phylogenetic relationship of a number of common insects (Susan Urmy / Vanderbilt) In an educational environment increasingly characterized by canned and virtual science experiments that always come out right, Vanderbilt’s alternative introductory biology laboratory (BSC 111c) stands… Read More

Periodic cicadas, like those currently emerging in Middle Tennessee, play an important role in the local ecosystem. Read More

Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos presented the Founder’s Medals to the top scholars from Vanderbilt University’s undergraduate and professional schools during Commencement on Friday, May 13. Read More

Discovery of a new class of insect repellant raises the possibility of formulations that are thousands of times more effective than current repellants. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers are exploring what role, if any, bacteria play in environmental diversity, with the aim of answering one of biology's most fundamental questions. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers are using a variety of approaches to hasten the beginning of the end of malaria. Read More

The Division of Sponsored Research received notification in March that the following grants in excess of $25,000 had been awarded: Julie A. Adams, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has received an award in the amount of $25,000 by the Department of Defense for “Expeditionary Capabilities Consortium:  Urban Operations Laboratory.”… Read More

As many as 25 percent of hospital nurses use sleep deprivation to adjust to working on the night shift, the poorest strategy for adapting their internal, circadian clocks to a night-time schedule. Read More

Gary Revell shows some of the worms he has collected using worm grunting (Ken Catania) “What is worm grunting?” That is one of the questions that moderator Richard Sher asked panelists last weekend in a rerun of a pre-recorded edition of “Says You!” – the popular… Read More

A new mouse model offers the ability to better test how selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) work and could lead to the development of new classes of anti-depressants. Read More

A record crowd of students and presenters turned out for the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development's 2011 Science Day Feb. 15. Read More

Since the days of Darwin, the “tree of life” has been the preeminent metaphor for the process of evolution, reflecting the gradual branching and changing of individual species. The discovery that a large cluster of genes appears to have jumped directly from one species of fungus to another, however,… Read More