Research News

The College of Arts and Sciences is a place filled with students and faculty who are ambitious and determined. They are incredible teachers, learners and doers. Read about how our innovative researchers are working together to  solve real world problems.

Detail of a person's two hands holding their knee, concept of pain.

Racial/ethnic disparities in pain prevalence are much greater than previously thought, according to UB medical sociologist Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk.
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The findings suggest the impact of racial discrimination on health is much greater than previously thought, UB sociologist Ashley Barr says.

As a child, Stephanie Poindexter loved watching the apes at the zoo. Now she's an expert in the slow loris, a noctural primate that inhabits Southeast Asia. In this episode of Driven to Discover, Poindexter tells host Vicky Santos what it's like to track down this shy creature in a Thai jungle in the middle of the night, and why she does it.

Over the past 2,000 years, rising and falling temperatures have altered the way water moves around the planet.

Zoom image: Study co-author Avriel Schweinsberg conducts field work in Greenland in 2016 while a UB PhD student. Photo: Jason Briner

Using satellite images and historical photos, researchers have compiled the most complete picture of Greenland’s outlying glaciers to date.

UB scientists are investigating if the water and sediment quality of the upper river can support these organisms that naturally filter out contaminants.

Concept of language in the mind.

UB faculty member Nichol Castro says the words you use and the mental dictionary you have are part of what make you and your voice unique.

Zoom image: Herbert Fotso has received a grant from the Department of Energy to study quantum materials and how disorder affects their behavior. Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki

UB physicist Herbert Fotso has received a DOE grant to explore the interplay between disorder and strong interaction between electrons.

A UB psychologist has received a $3.2 million grant to assess how cannabis use affects patients who receive immunotherapy

Students raising their hands in a classroom.

How instructors reply to college students’ queries in introductory STEM settings can motivate those students to pursue more research in STEM courses.

Zoom image: Scientists collect vegetation data from the Cape of Good Hope, Western Cape, South Africa. Photo: © Adam M. Wilson

The BioSCape project is an important step toward monitoring ecosystems across the globe from space.

Bing Gong's lab, from left, Jillian McGrath, PhD student; Yulong Zhong, research assistant professor; Bing Gong, Christina Scalzo, PhD student and Victoria Schmidt, a masters student.

Developed by UB researchers, synthetic anion binders can “ferry” mucus-clearing ions blocked by the chronic lung disease.

UB researcher Scott Santos studies how tiny red shrimp are adapting to the changing environment of the Hawaiian Islands.

Concept of political divisions in the United States.

Researchers hope the findings are useful for people who care about science and want to improve public acceptance of science.

The phenomenon is crucial for protein design and function, and for understanding life at very low temperatures and high pressure.

The ultrahigh-intensity laser facility at the University of Rochester could reestablish U.S. leadership in the field of high-peak-power lasers.

Concept of manipulation featuring large hands with stings attached to the fingers that are tangled around a smaller figure's body and head.

A UB study's results provide a foundation for counter messaging to neutralize those appeals or encourage people to leave terrorist groups.

UB researcher Howard Lasker is leading a pilot experiment to restore coral communities damaged by the BP oil spill.

A study identifies the fatty acid-making protein behind membrane rupture and inflammation during necroptosis.

UB chemist Diana Aga has received a $3 million NSF grant to study factors contributing to the public health threat.

The UB-led study may provide the first evidence showing the role of the immune system as a potential antecedent to social media use.

UB researchers pour lava from a small oven onto the ground.

Buffalo Sewer Authority calls upon UB lava flow expert to improve wastewater treatment plant.

UB research finds that glacier N79 has undetected features that may indicate it is less stable than scientists have understood.

A UB study found that people with musical training — whether instrumental or vocal — are better at imitating pitch than someone without that training.

Zoom image: Martin Harris, a PhD student in the lab of UB geology professor Stephan Kolzenburg, with a field rheometer prototype to measure flow properties of lava at Litli-hrútur in Iceland. Photo courtesy of Martin Harris and Jason Travis Parsons, University at Buffalo, and Oryaëlle Chevrel of the Université Clermont Auvergne.

Stephan Kolzenburg’s field and lab research aims to predict where and how far lava will flow if a volcano erupts.

Zoom image: A new study that analyzes ancient soil once stored at UB is causing a worrisome rethinking of the history of Greenland’s ice sheet and reveals its fragile nature today.

A new study finds the island was mostly ice free only 416,000 years ago and is more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought.

Zhen Wang, right, Emily Carrol, left, have identified for the first time an enzyme in the foxglove plant that is responsible for the production of compounds needed to make the heart failure drug digoxin.

The breakthrough discovery could help reduce the plant-based drug’s three-year production time and lead to less toxic alternatives.

Zoom image: From left: James Hanna, Jonathan Hoag and Carlton E. Brett examine rocks at Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve in May. Photo courtesy of HNHS/Penn Dixie

UB geology student James Hanna's discovery extends the fossil record of an extinct ancestor of starfish by 25 million years.

A happy young couple contemplates future happiness.

New UB research suggests that people’s beliefs about happiness matter in shaping their everyday goal pursuits and well-being. 

Eduardo Mercado III’s “Singers as Sentinels” project will explore how human noise pollution presents a new threat to whales’ survival.

Genetic analysis suggests some Alaska Natives live near where their ancestors did 3,000 years ago.

UB biologist Soo-Kyung Lee has been awarded a $1.5 million grant to study gene therapy for FOXG1 Syndrome, a disease that affects her daughter.

Building upon a popular problem-solving model, researchers find an upshot to miscommunication.

Homo neanderthalensis adult male. Reconstruction based on Shanidar 1 by John Gurche for the Human Origins Program, NMNH. Date: 225,000 to 28,000 years.

A UB-led study has found that gene variations for immune and metabolic conditions have persisted in humans for more than 700,000 years.

The invention could benefit pharmaceutical, automotive, food processing, carbon capture and other industries.

Researchers tested whether there was a change in Disney’s value-laden content over time based on the box office success of previous Disney pictures.

Ubehebe Crater in Death Valley National Park.

Findings from a study led by UB geologist Greg Valentine could lead to policy changes that help save lives and infrastructure.

How you feel about social interaction on days when you spend more time alone depends on why you wanted to be alone, a UB study finds.

From left to right, UB researchers Martha Bohm, Diana Aga and Ning Dai.

Support from the UB RENEW Institute was key in researchers landing three new grants totaling over $2.6 million.

The advancement involving manganese trichloride “opens the floodgates to a whole new area of research,” says lead scientist David Lacy.

Despite fog, wind and scarce resources, the research expedition succeeded in collecting valuable data.

Heather Williams, assistant clinical professor in biological sciences and director of the department’s REU, talks about the program’s successful first summer.

The findings of a UB study offer guidance for leveraging interpersonal goals in ways that could change real-world sharing behavior.

Mary Alice Coffroth and Howard Lasker are among researchers whose work is shedding light on how climate change may shape reefs.

The site of the excavation led by UB archaeologist Alessandro Sebastiani is one of the few untouched by looters.

In mammals, proteins called mucins evolved — again and again — by co-opting non-mucin proteins in a surprising way, study suggests.

From left: UB researchers heading to Greenland this year include PhD students Karlee Prince and Caleb Walcott, and master’s student Liza Wilson. Walcott is going as part of the GreenDrill team, and Prince and Wilson for another research project. All are members of Jason Briner’s lab in the Department of Geology.

Geologist Jason Briner co-leads GreenDrill, a project to collect bedrock samples from Greenland.

A new study finds the species' histories hide the convoluted stories of divergence and interbreeding.

The naming of the Nowicki Foreland honors Sophie Nowicki’s years of work in bringing global scientists together to model future sea level rise.

New UB research suggests education and wealth are not necessarily tied to better health in China, in contrast to the West.

Zoom image: Nisa Vyverberg, engineering major and sustainability volunteer, explains to a fellow student the composting process at the newly opened One World Café on the North Campus. Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki

The research comes after China set strict restrictions on recyclable materials, throwing the U.S. recycling market into disarray.

The research focuses on the placement of stream gauges — instruments that keep tabs on how much water is flowing through rivers and streams.

Zoom image: Vincent Lynch (center), associate professor of biological sciences, studies how large and long-lived animals have evolved protections against cancer. Team members in his lab include master’s student Meaghan Birkemeier (left) and postdoctoral researcher Jacob Bowman (right). Photo: Douglas Levere

Creatures that live longer and have more cells should have higher risks of developing cancer. A UB team is looking at why they don't.

Scientists say the company likely contributed to elevated pollution levels on some properties but the contamination was not systematic in areas around the site.

UB-led research describes how a gene called Kdm6b helps motor neurons diversify into crucial subtypes.

UB researchers focus on breaking down PFAS, a family of highly persistent pollutants that can accumulate in people’s bodies, and in wildlife.

A study by anthropologist Nicholas Holowka has found that heavily cushioned shoes does not impact running style.

UB research finds employment outcomes are worse in states that have policies restricting criminal records-based discrimination.

In a new study, genetically engineered E. coli eat glucose, then help turn it into molecules found in gasoline.

New research led by UB psychologist Eduardo Mercado continues to challenge current thinking about whale songs.

The study's findings have broad implications when thinking about the challenges associated with autism.

UB professor Lillian Williams has devoted her career to building archives and organizations to advance the study of Black history, women’s history and local history.

Field biologists and NASA planes will document the distribution and function of species and ecosystems in the region.

UB geologists are looking at how these destructive phenomena — consisting of fast-flowing gas and ash — move across complex terrain.

A study led by a UB postdoc describes the gut contents of giant plumose anemones off the coast of Washington.

An NEH grant to support the UB project is part of a program that uses the humanities as channels for veterans to think more deeply about their military service.

A UB study digs into the history of summer in southern Greenland, with findings that hold a message of caution as the world warms again.

Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius could halve sea level rise caused by melting land ice this century, according to an international team that includes UB's Sophie Nowicki

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