Our faculty are global leaders in FoxG1 research
9/28/20

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

Grand Opening: New Space for New Ideas
12/10/19

Gerald Koudelka (left), professor and former chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, cuts the ribbon to mark the grand opening of our new space for new ideas. Looking on are CAS Dean Robin Schulze and Joe Helfer, senior assistant to the chair.

BIO-319 helps get bees buzzin’ at UB
10/3/19

Our Genetics course (BIO-319) inspires the study of 240,000 bees buzzing in six hives on the North Campus, thanks to the persistence of a bee-loving undergradute student and faculty members. Read UB Now.

We cultivate an active community of inquiry
5/4/18

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

Our faculty 'lead with the lab'
5/4/18

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 students learn by doing
3/19/18

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.

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COVID-19 Dashboard — UB Planning and Response

Fall 2020

Seminar Series.
Seminar Series

THURSDAYS, ONLINE, 4:00pm.
 For members of the UB community, please log in to access the seminar Zoom link. For people outside the UB community, please contact Laura Rusche (lrusche@buffalo.edu) for the seminar link.

Oct. 29: Derek Taylor, UB Biological Sciences, RNA virus-host interactions: insights from paleovirology.

Nov. 5: Alessio Vagnoni, King's College London, Intracellular trafficking and neuronal ageing.

Nov. 12: Jason Kay, UB Oral Biology, Changing dynamics between phagocytes and oral microbes.

Nov. 19: Luis Barreiro, University of Chicago, (title tbd).

Dec. 3: Fraser Sim, PhD, (title tbd).

Dec. 10: Hyuk-Jae Edward Kwon, UB Oral Biology, Understanding morphogenesis through tooth development.

Spotlight

  • Safety is our primary focus.
    10/21/20
    The Department of Biological Sciences has bolstered its remote learning materials to supplement — or in some cases replace — in-person education normally conducted in labs. For example, the Genetics Laboratory, which has nearly 170 enrolled students, moved all quizzes, assessments and lab reports online. We have reformatted courses to support remote learning with new videos on lab procedures. We are refining the process to submit homework online and improving techniques for vurtual interaction. Nearly 1,300 biology students have the option to learn in-person or fully complete the lab online.  “It was clear early on that we had to be prepared for what would happen if someone got COVID or the campus shut down for two weeks or longer,” says Jessica Poulin, clinical associate professor of biological sciences. “We worked really hard on the online plan knowing we would likely have to convert to fully online at any time. We knew we needed to be flexible for students who could not come back to campus.” Read more from UBNow.
  • Science: Why adding salt makes fruit—and candy—sweeter
    10/13/20

    SCIENCE quoted Kathryn Medler, in a story about a new study that explored how sweet-sensitive taste cells work, and the role of a protein called the sodium-glucose cotransporter 1 (SGLT1) in detecting sweetness. “This is an interesting piece of work that suggests the sweet taste is more complicated than we previously realized,” Medler said.

  • Medler challenges conventional notions of how taste works
    8/24/20
    A study co-authored by Kathryn Medler, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, was published on Aug. 13, 2020, in the journal PLOS Genetics. The groundbreaking findings highlight how much scientists still have to learn about taste, including how taste buds work and send information to the brain. The study was performed by Debarghya Dutta Banik, a former PhD student in the Department of Biological Sciences, along with co-authors Eric D. Benfey, Amy R. Nelson, Zachary C. Ahart, Barrett T. Kemp and Bailey R. Kemp in Kathryn Medler’s lab in the UB Department of Biological Sciences; and Laura E. Martin and Kristen E. Kay  working in the labs of Gregory C. Loney and Ann-Marie Torregrossa in the UB Department of Psychology. The research received support from the UB North Campus Imaging Facility, which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.  See news report by Charlotte Hsu.
  • Gunawardena's research devoted to understanding HTT’s role in cell biology and health
    7/17/20
    “When it comes to finding therapies for neurological diseases, a lot of the research focuses on the pathology and aggregation of proteins, but that may not be the actual cause,” says Shermali Gunawardena, PhD, associate professor of biological sciences in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences. “We want to try to figure out what might be going on earlier. We want to come in from a different angle and say, ‘OK, are huntingtin and Rab4 normally present together in healthy neurons? And then, what are they doing in the context of a disease state?’ ”  Read the news article by Charlotte Hsu
  • Why do scientists use baker’s yeast in the lab?
    7/13/20
    Why do scientists use baker’s yeast in the lab? Researchers harness baker’s yeast to study a variety of biological processes. Laura Rusche’s lab uses S. cerevisiae to learn more about how certain genes get switched on or off in response to stress. Sarah Walker’s team uses the organism to probe the intricacies of mRNA translation, which causes cells to produce proteins. Paul Cullen's lab explores cellular mechanisms that cause certain changes in yeast growth patterns. Read the news article by Charlotte Hsu. 
  • Krabbenhoft co-curates the Fish and Climate Change Database (FiCli)
    5/11/20
    “The Fish and Climate Change Database pulls information together in a way that people can meaningfully use it,” says Trevor Krabbenhoft. “The idea is not just to document how fish have been affected by climate change, but to also provide information on management options that can help mitigate some of those effects.” Researchers, fisheries managers, conservationists, journalists and others can use FiCli to find scientific articles based on factors such as fish species, habitat type, location and type of climate change impact (such as a change in temperature or precipitation). Read the full article by Charlotte Hsu.
Department News

Student & Alumni Highlights

Research Areas

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Welcome new faculty

Eric J. Strobel, PhD.
Eric J. Strobel, PhD

This fall, the Department of Biological Sciences welcomes Eric J. Strobel as the newest member of our faculty. Dr. Strobel's research interests are Nascent RNA structure and function. His research areas are: Cell and Molecular; Genetics; Genomics; and Microbiology. His research summary states, "We study the basic mechanisms through which cotranscriptional RNA folding mediates gene regulation and RNA biogenesis by developing and applying high-throughput approaches for measuring nascent RNA structure and function."  Learn more.

UB Biological Sciences In-the-News