Department of Biological Sciences

Our faculty are global leaders in FoxG1 research

4/26/22

Two UB scientists work to find a cure for daughter's rare disease. These neurobiologists and parents are now global leaders in FoxG1 research.

WGRZ-TV News Broadcast

We cultivate an active community of inquiry

4/26/22

Faculty teaching and research connects academic programs and experiential labs to cultivate an active community of results-oriented inquiry.

4/12/21 Learn more about our research

Our faculty 'lead with the lab'

4/26/22

The instructional philosophy, 'lead with the lab', allows our students to develop critical thinking skills while providing broad, deep, state-of-the art training in all life science disciplines.

Our alumni shape the future

4/26/22

We take great pride in the achievements and success of our alumni, many of whom enjoy distinguished careers in the Biological, Biomedical and related fields. Pictured at the UB CAS graduate commencement, May 15, 2021 (left to right): Haniam Maria (PhD graduate), Laura Rusche (faculty), Paul Cullen (faculty), Aditi Prabhakar (PhD graduate), Rupkatha Banerjee (PhD graduate), Shermali Gunawardena (faculty).

1/27/22 Learn more about our alumni

Our students learn by doing

11/3/22

Our curriculum provides students broad and deep training at the cutting edge of modern biology through a learn-by-doing philosophy. Our approach to teaching cross-disciplinary life sciences prepares students for today's accelerating pace of discovery in biological sciences.

11/3/22 We invite you to apply to the program

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SPRING 2023 EVENTS

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Natural Sciences Complex (NSC) 215

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Showcase

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UBNow features Heather Williams and REU success
10/3/22
UB News columnist Charlotte Hsu presents an interview with Heather Williams about the success of the department’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU). From June to July, UB biologists hosted seven undergraduates from various institutions working in labs focused on a broad range of topics within biology. The eight-week program, funded by proceeds from the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, covers students’ travel and living expenses, and also includes a stipend for participants. Undergraduate students are invited to apply for REU Summer 2023.
PBS cites research by Vincent Lynch to better understand elephantoid genome
6/22/22
The Wolly Mammoth always attracts attention, which is why PBS Digital Studios features the episode, How To Build A Woolly Mammoth (But Should We?) Presented by PBS Eons, host Blake de Pastino is on a "quest to understand how evolution basically built the woolly mammoth, we may have found the blueprints for building them ourselves." The segment cites Vincent Lynch's research on elephantoid genome.
Omer Gokcumen interviewed by WNYC Radiolab: Neanderthal's Revenge
6/15/22
Omer Gokcumen's work on evolutionary genomics was featured on Radioshop, in a segment entitled Neanderthal's Revenge. The program's co-host, Latif Nasser, reported on his own "medical journey that made him not only question what was going on in his body, but also dig into the secret genetic story of how we became human." While looking into the origins of Crohn's Disease, Nasser came upon a research article by Gokcumen. The full podcast is here.
Poulin and McCabe receive SUNY Chancellor’s Awards
6/27/22
The Department of Biological Sciences is pleased to announce that Dr. Jessica Poulin, Clinical Associate Professor, and, Barbara McCabe, Instructional Supoort Staff, have each received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence. The Chancellor’s Awards acknowledge and provide system-wide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and the ongoing pursuit of excellence. See UB Now story, here. The awards were presented October 27 during UB's 2022 Celebration of Faculty and Student Excellence.
UBNow features the work of Zhen Wang
10/3/22
Dr. Zhen Wang's research project aims to pinpoint the genes that plants use to produce medicinal compounds could enable scientists to explore faster, more efficient methods of manufacturing these substances. This could include genetically engineering microbes to synthesize the drugs. One goal of the project is to decipher how the foxglove plant Digitalis lanata makes compounds called cardenolides, which have pharmaceutical relevance. See feature by UB Now.

Department News

Student and Alumni Highlights

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Holly O’Shea wins UB Graduate School’s Excellence in Teaching Award
4/20/22
The Department of Biological Sciences is proud to announce that Holly O’Shea has won the UB Graduate School’s Excellence in Teaching Award for the year 2022. This prestigious award recognizes the skill and dedication of graduate students as a teacher. Holly is currently a PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Soo Lee, Empire Innovation Professor and was co-nominated for the award by Dr. Jae Lee, Professor, and Dr. Jessica Poulin, Clinical Associate Professor.
BIO major Monique Kapur-Mauleon graduates in just one year
4/20/22
Recent graduate Monique Kapur-Mauleon had her pick of dental school offers, but has chosen to stay at UB. Monique’s highly inquisitive approach to learning immediately stood out to her Developmental Biology professor, Dr. Ferkey, who looks forward to keeping in touch with Monique as she progresses through her master’s and doctoral degrees. Read the UB News story.
BIO major Paul Dewan, Jr., wins Goldwater Fellowship
4/20/22
The Department of Biological Sciences is pleased to announce that Paul Dewan, Jr, has won the prestigious Goldwater Fellowship for 2022. Dewan, a junior majoring in biological sciences, participates in the department’s Honors program, and conducts research in the lab of Dr. Priya Banerjee, Department of Physics.
Campbell Vogt wins grant from Rochester Academy of Sciences
2/28/22
The UB Department of Biological Sciences is pleased to announce that Campbell Vogt, a student in our Honors program, has won a grant from the Rochester Academy of Sciences to carry out research with Dr. Laura Rusche. Vogt’s research focuses on the evolutionary history of the yeast protein Sir3, which blocks gene expression, and is a major focus of the Rusche lab.
BIO Major Katherine Camper named Furnas Scholar-Athlete
5/10/22
Congratulations to Katherine Camper on being named UB's Furnas Scholar-Athlete of 2022. Learn more.
Announcing the Senior Fellowship Awardees
4/20/22
The Department of Biological Sciences is pleased to announce the winners of this year's Senior Fellowships Awards. The fellowships aim to provide financial support for our students entering their senior year. The awards are made possible by generous alumni and friends who establish endowments for academic programs aimed at enhancing the educational experiences of our students.
Pia Schwarz wins SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence
4/20/22
The Department of Biological Sciences is proud to announce that Pia Schwarz ‘22 and current MS student was awarded the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence in April. In addition to her excellence in her courses, Schwarz has worked with Dr. Trevor Krabbenhoft, studying evolutionary genomics, speciation, and hybridization in North American stream fish. She has presented her work at local, national, and international conferences. Schwartz also acted as TA for Evolutionary Biology.

Faculty News

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Gunawardena 's research suggests that HTT is involved in neuronal injury and regeneration
10/13/22
UB Now published a feature story about Dr. Shermali Gunawardena's research. “We show that the huntingtin protein is involved during neuronal injury,” Gunawardena says. “When neurons in fruit fly larvae were injured, we see that HTT moves from the injury site to the cell body. It likely carries components that are necessary for survival of the neuron toward the cell body, where the nucleus is and where proteins are made." Experiments suggest that this HTT package may carry signaling molecules that are essential for activating the production of proteins needed for neuron regeneration.
ScienceAdvances publishes new study: A mechanism of gene evolution generating mucin function
8/30/22
The interdisciplinary journal, ScienceAdvances, has published a study on mucins. The study demonstrates how a long-time partnership between evolutionary biologists and dental researchers at UB is yielding new insights into genes and proteins that are also important to human health. Senior authors are Omer Gokcumen (UB associate professor of biological sciences) and Stefan Ruhl (interim dean of the UB School of Dental Medicine and a professor of oral biology). The first author is Petar Pajic, UB PhD student in biological sciences. “My team has been studying mucins for many decades, and my collaboration with Dr. Gokcumen has brought this research to a new level by revealing all these exciting novel insights into their evolutionary genetics,” Ruhl says. “At this advanced stage of my career, it is also immensely gratifying to see that the flame of scientific curiosity is being carried on by a new generation of young investigators like Petar Pajic.”
David Hoekstra's passion for teaching honored by Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools
4/20/22
Dr. David Hoekstra, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded the 2022 Graduate Faculty Teaching Award by the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS) at the Master’s level. NAGS is comprised of all graduate schools across the Northeast and also includes graduate schools in the Canadian southeast.
NSF grant supports research project by Charlotte Lindqvist and team
8/9/22
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a grant, totaling $2,945,234., to support the UB Biological Sciences research study by Charlotte Lindqvist as Principal Investigator. Co-principal investigators are Jason Briner, Elizabeth Thomas, and Corey Krabbenhoft.
Vincent Lynch co-authors paper on expression phylogenies and ancestral transcriptome reconstruction
1/13/23
“Knowing which genes are active among different species during pregnancy tells us about how evolution works,” says senior author Vincent J. Lynch, associate professor of biological sciences, College of Arts and Sciences. “But it also tells us about what makes a healthy pregnancy, and how things might go wrong. We’re finding the genes that establish the right kind of environment for healthy human pregnancies. If those genes are not expressed in the right way, that might give rise to problems.” Read article by Charlotte Hsu.
Spectrum News profiles FOX G1 Center of Excellence led by Soo-Kyung Lee and Jae Lee
1/13/23
Spectrum, the leading source of news and expert opinion on autism research, reports on the work of UB Biological Sciences Professors Soo and Jae Lee in "portraits of scientists who are making a mark on autism research". Read the Spectrum News/Profiles, here.
Lindqvist provides insight into the evolutionary history of bears
6/8/22
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a study led by Charlotte Lindqvist that analyzed the genomes of 64 modern polar and brown bears, including several new genomes from Alaska, a state where both species are found. The team also produced a new, more complete genome for a polar bear that lived 115,000 to 130,000 years ago in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. DNA for the ancient polar bear was extracted from a tooth attached to a subfossil jawbone, which is now housed at the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo. Read the news story by Charlotte Hsu.

Department News

Research Areas

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Genetics
5/4/18
Geneticists investigate biological processes by examining the phenotypic consequences of altering genes. Our faculty study how information encoded in DNA is interpreted to produce functional proteins.
Animal Models
6/6/18
Faculty study essential biological processes with particular relevance to the understanding of animal life.
Signaling
5/4/18
Signaling faculty study cellular communication and the intracellular pathways that regulate activity. These faculty use a wide range of model organisms and techniques to examine a diverse array of signalling pathways involved in hormonal regulation, sensory transduction, and cell growth and metabolism.
Ecology and Evolution
5/4/18
Our research concerns plant evolutionary biology; molecular phylogenetics and population genomics; chromatin and gene expression; genome stability; and the genetics of aquatic invertebrates.
Fungal Biology
5/4/18
Our faculty study cell biology and signalling pathways that are used by filamentous fungi and budding yeast to adapt to their environments. Our research uses yeast as a model organism to study the mechanisms of gene expression.
Plant Science
5/4/18
Faculty research focuses on photosynthesis, plant evolution, plant genomics, gene regulation, environmental remediation, and the metabolic engineering of pharmaceutical compounds.
Genomics
5/4/18
Faculty study evolutionary change using a variety of techniques capitalizing on recent advances in genomics methodology and the evolution of viruses, plants, fish, and humans.
Cell and Molecular
5/4/18
Cell and Molecular faculty study the regulation of protein expression, from transcription to translation to post-translational modification.
Neuroscience
5/4/18
Our faculty study a variety of model systems using electrophysiology and imaging techniques to understand sensory signalling and the cellular processes underlying important neuronal disorders.
Microbiology
6/6/18
Microbiology faculty study microorganisms including viruses, bacteria, and protozoans.

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SPRING 2023 EVENTS

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UB Biological Sciences Faculty News

Department of Biological Sciences