Department News

“Our findings not only provide key insights into the adaptive landscape of the Nepenthes genome, but also broaden our understanding of how polyploidy — having multiple sets of chromosomes — can stimulate the evolution of new functions,” says Victor Albert, Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences. He is co-senior author of the study, published in Nature Plants. Other contributors from UB include Charlotte Lindqvist, professor of biological sciences, and PhD students Emily Caroll and Michaela Richter. The work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation. Read article in UB Research News.

According to Dr. Corey Krabbenhoft (Department of Biological Sciences), “Freshwater mussels feed by filtering things like bacteria and contaminants out of the water. A great way to help our waterways become healthier is to invest in freshwater mussels." UB Research News published an article about the work of Krabbenhoft, and Dr. Isabel Porto-Hannes (Department of Environment and Sustainability). They are conducting a pilot study to determine if the water and sediment quality of the upper Niagara River is acceptable for a possible large-scale reintroduction of freshwater mussels to naturally clean the waterway. Read the article by Jackie Hausler

UB Research News published an article about Dr. Scott Santos, Maui native and Biological Sciences Empire Innovation Professor. Santos has been studying Halocaridina rubra for nearly two decades. He believes the tiny shrimp provide a window into how ocean life is changing due to climate change. At UB, the Santos Lab utilizes a variety of molecular tools, computational approaches and field- and laboratory-based studies to examine the ecology, evolution, genetics, physiology and symbiosis biology of a range of terrestrial and aquatic — both freshwater and marine — organisms, including host- and environmentally associated microbiomes. Santos earned his PhD here in 2002, and joined our faculty two years ago. Read the article by Meredith Forrest Kulwicki. 

The Wang Lab's  breakthrough discovery, described in a paper published July 8 in Nature Communications, builds upon knowledge of the compounds, known as cardiac glycosides. It also could help speed up production of the plant-based drug, which is among the oldest medications used in the field of cariology, and help researchers create less toxic alternatives. Read the news.

Three faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences were recently honored with university awards: the Exceptional Scholars Award for Sustained Achievement to Dr. Paul Cullen; the Teaching Innovation Award to Dr. Lara Hutson; and the Exceptional Scholars — Young Investigator Award to Dr. Eric Strobel. The Department is proud to recognize these faculty among its ranks, as they contribute to our core missions of excellence in research and teaching.

The peer-reviewed, open-access journal, iScience, has published a paper by UB evolutionary biologist Charlotte Lindqvist and collaborators, “A paleogenome from a Holocene individual supports genetic continuity in Southeast Alaska." Their findings show, using ancient genetic data analyses, that some modern Alaska Natives still live almost exactly where their ancestors did some 3,000 years ago. In addition to Lindqvist, authors of the new paper include Alber Aqil, Stephanie Gill, Omer Gokcumen, Ripan Malhi, Esther Aaltséen Reese, Jane Smith, and, Timothy Heaton. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation. Read more.

A $1.5 million grant from the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) has been awarded to Professor Soo-Kyung Lee to support research on the rare neurodevelopmental disorder FOXG1 Syndrome. SFARI’s mission is to improve the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders by funding innovative research of the highest quality and relevance. The grant could help benefit people suffering from the rare genetic brain disorder. Read the article by UB Research News.

The NSF News features a story about the research of Alber Aqil, PhD candidate,  and Professor Omer Gokcumen. Their study investigates a key question in biology: why genomic variation persists in a population for extended periods. According to Rebecca Ferrell, NSF Biological Anthropology program director, "the project demonstrates the value of an expanding genomic toolkit for studying human evolution, revealing new details about the complex variation and relationships among hominins." Visit NSF News.

Alber Aqil, PhD candidate,  and Prof Omer Gokcumen are co-authors of a research paper that examines a key question in biology: why genomic variation persists in a population for extended periods. Recent studies have identified examples of genomic deletions that have remained polymorphic in the human lineage for hundreds of millennia, ostensibly owing to balancing selection. Nevertheless, genome-wide investigation of ancient and possibly adaptive deletions remains an imperative exercise. Their research demonstrates an excess of polymorphisms in present-day humans that predate the modern human-Neanderthal split (ancient polymorphisms), which cannot be explained solely by selectively neutral scenarios. The eLife paper is here. Read the research news article by Corey Nealon.

Paul Cullen, professor and director of graduate studies, is the recipient of the 2021-22 Distinguished Postdoctoral Mentor Award, which recognizes UB faculty members who excel in the mentoring of postdoctoral scholars. The award is bestowed on faculty members who not only teach their mentees, but also serve as an advocate, adviser and positive role model. Read the news story by Charles Anzalone.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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. 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a grant, totaling $2,945,234., to support a UB Biological Sciences study on the impacts of climate change. The study's principal investigator is Charlotte Lindqvist. Co-principal investigators are Jason Briner, Elizabeth Thomas, and Corey Krabbenhoft. 

“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, 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.

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.

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'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. 

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.

“Understanding how some animals evolved to be relatively cancer-free despite having giant bodies and living a really long time is all about understanding how evolution works,” says Vincent Lynch, associate professor of biological sciences, College of Arts and Sciences. “If you can figure out how it is these animals evolved to be relatively cancer-free, we can learn something about evolution and maybe that can teach us something about how we can treat cancer in humans.” Read more.

The Department of Biological Sciences is pleased to announce that Dr. Jessica Poulin, Clinical Associate Professor, has won the 2022 Mid-American Conference (MAC) Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success.  She is among the twelve institutional winners recognized for their outstanding efforts to support and develop students both inside and outside of the classroom. She is past recipient of the Milton Plesur Excellence in Teaching Award, and, the UB Teaching Innovation Award.

Research at the Lee Lab has uncovered new details about the process through which motor neurons develop into subtypes that connect the spinal cord with different target muscles and help to activate different body parts. The findings have been published in the journal, Nature Communications. Read the news article by Charlotte Hsu.

“Our publication details how GSK3β attaches a molecular tag to kinesin 1 motors, which causes the motors to stop without detaching from microtubule tracks. We are super excited, since now we know how to control the ‘engine’ while it is moving on a track,” says senior author Shermali Gunawardena, PhD,  associate professor of biological sciences. The findings — based on laboratory experiments, including some in the neurons of fruit fly larvae — could open the door for future research on pausing motors as a mechanism for treating diseases. Read the news article by Charlotte Hsu.

Victor A. Albert, PhD, Empire Innovation Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, along with a large international team from China, the U.S., Singapore, France and Canada, are co-authors of a study recently published in Nature Genetics. Their research not only adds new chapters to the history of the lychee, it also provides an in-depth look at flowering time, a hugely important trait in agriculture. “Early-maturing lychees versus late-maturing lychees came from different places and were domesticated independently,” says Dr. Albert, “This, by itself, is an interesting story, but we also wanted to know what causes these differences. Why do these varieties fruit and flower at different times?” By comparing the DNA of many lychee varieties, the team identified a genetic variant that could be used to create a simple test for identifying early- and late-blooming lychee plants. Read the news story by Charlotte Hsu.

"Making biofuels from renewable resources like glucose has great potential to advance green energy technology," says biochemist Zhen Q. Wang, assistant professor of biological sciences, College of Arts and Sciences. "Glucose is produced by plants through photosynthesis, which turns carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into oxygen and sugar. So the carbon in the glucose — and later the olefins — is actually from carbon dioxide that has been pulled out of the atmosphere.”  The research project, led by Wang at UB and Michelle C. Y. Chang at UC Berkeley, marks an advance in efforts to create sustainable biofuels. “We combined what biology can do the best with what chemistry can do the best, and we put them together to create this two-step process. Using this method, we were able to make olefins directly from glucose." Read the news story by Charlotte Hsu.