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.

The UB chemistry professor is on the network’s list of 10 Americans whose Hispanic heritage is intrinsically tied to their work.

The two-day event aims to recognize and further elevate the profile of the college's distinguished faculty. 

People posing together following a ceremonial ribbon cutting for the the FOXG1 Research Center.

Hope and love aren’t often mentioned in the same breath as scientific research, but they’re the foundation of UB’s FOXG1 Research Center.

The publication has selected Yotam Ophir as one of its 10 “scientists to watch.”

UB archaeologist Douglas Perrelli and his students are conducting a dig on the site of Buffalo’s historic Michigan Street Baptist Church.

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.

Zoom image: (From left) Adam Grodek, Sean Bennett and Kevin Cullinan observe emerald shiner minnows swim in an experimental flume. These observations were the basis for the Freedom Park fishway. Photo: Douglas Levere

UB researchers’ experimental flume and object-detection models inform the ongoing construction of the Niagara River fishway.

A person crouching in a large puddle of water following an historic storm.

An NSF-funded project gives graduate students with the UB RENEW Institute international research experience.

UB psychologist Peter Pfordresher is part of a study that provides a global view about how the world’s music and languages evolved into their current states.

An aerial image of an opening in the sea cover in Antarica.

The team will conceptualize a satellite mission that can advance understanding of Earth’s response to climate change.

UB scientists find 109 new candidate genes for human male infertility by analyzing gorillas’ unusual reproductive system.

Thomas Brachmann, Kevin Cullinan and Gary Nottingham, the team in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Instrument Machine Shop.

The team works with faculty to plan, design, fabricate and repair the precision devices needed to conduct their work.

UB experts weigh in on the DEA's move to reclassify cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III substance.

A smart phone with the Truth Social app on screen, an image of Donald Trump in the background.

Trump’s ability to attract news attention doesn't rely on a specific platform, but on his ability to engage users, says UB communication researcher Yini Zhang.

UB mathematician Naoki Masuda’s theory determines which data points matter most when calculating early warning signals.

Emanuela Gionfriddo (center) with her students in her lab.

Emanuela Gionfriddo, who joined the faculty as part of UB's historic hiring initiative, studies environmental pollutants.

UB physics researcher Priya R. Banerjee has been awarded a seed grant from the Hypothesis Fund to explore the "big idea."

A person using a filter over the lens of a camera to photograph a partial solar eclipse in 2017.

Citizen science teams across the path of totality will take advantage of a rare opportunity to observe the sun’s atmosphere.

An illustration of optical fibers spinning around the globe.

Scientists transfer electron spin to photons, a quantum tech advancement that could offer rapid communication over interplanetary distances.

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.
Sun rising over a modern wastewater treatment plant.

A research team aims to develop solutions to separate urine from solid human waste for use in environmentally and economically beneficial applications.

Liquid droplets of disordered proteins engage with — and overtake — the gene regulatory complex, UB physicists find

The theoretical foundations of recovery capital contributed to a paradigmatic shift in the science of addiction recovery.

People entering a polling site.

UB political philosopher Alexandra Oprea says options need to be found for boosting turnout at the polls.

From left to right, Jo L. Freudenheim, Victoria Wolcott and Michael Rembis.

The funding will support a new interdisciplinary research project to better understand and address issues faced by caregivers and those with disabilities.

UB students in Kristin Poinar's Glacier Modeling Lab are mixing fieldwork with the latest developments in AI to map and understand the ever-changing glacial ice in Greenland. 

UB scientist and partners have synthesized decades’ worth of NASA mission findings, including the rate of melting ice caps.

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

The algae, from the genus Breviolum, reside inside the coral tissue, forming a symbiotic relationship.

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.

Zoom image: UB chemist Luis Colon works in his lab in the Natural Sciences Complex. Colon is principal investigator on an NSF grant to develop adsorbent materials for detecting forever chemicals. Photo: Douglas Levere

UB chemist Luis Colón has received an NSF grant to study how hybrid forms of silica, the chief component of sand, can help sleuth for PFAS.

Study shows how the element’s electrons chemically bond when under pressures like those found below Earth’s crust.

NASA interns.

The connection to nature is “its own science,” says UB physics major and NASA intern Alyssa Warrior.

Pitcher plant.

Study finds duplicated genomes may have paved the way for specialized carnivory and separate-sexed plants.

Zoom image: Researchers have found that RNA molecules can undergo phase separation in a temperature-dependent manner, and this phase behavior is supported by magnesium ions in solution. Here, CAG-repeat RNA droplets are shown in a physiologically relevant buffer. Photo: Gable Wadsworth and Priya Banerjee

While RNA is well known for its part in cutting-edge vaccine technology, a UB-led study looks at its lesser explored role in the inner workings of cells.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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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