Biology Announcements
The following is a list of the latest news from the Department of Biological Sciences. For more general stories or announcements, please visit the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science homepage, the Jupiter Life Science Initiative webpage, and the Owl Research & Innovation Magazine.
May 29, 2020
IB PhD Candidate Part of Keep Moving. Keep Moving, a team of students that recently won the Division of Research's COVID-19 Change Challenge, are moving their winning proposal forward.
May 25, 2020
Can’t Touch This! Drone Aerial Video Shows It’s ‘Hammerhead’ Time. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) enabled Dr. Stephen Kajiura to unobtrusively observe and allow natural behaviors to be documented in the wild, providing insight into seldom-seen predator–prey interactions.
May 20, 2020
FAU Announces Winners of Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition. Congratulations to Morgan Slevin, who works in the laboratory of Dr. Rindy Anderson, for winning 1st place for his talk entitled “Smarts and Symbiosis: How a Bird's Gut Microbiome Influences its Cognitive Performance.”
May 18, 2020
IBNS PhD Student Featured in AOS website. Morgan Slevin, who works in the laboratory of Dr. Rindy Anderson, was recently highlighted in the American Ornithological Society (AOS) for his research on the connections between the gut, the brain and the nervous system using songbirds.
May 15, 2020
IB PhD candidate publishes paper. James Jaggard, IB PhD candidate, and Drs. Bethany Stanhope and Alex Keene recently published a paper in Current Biology that examines the impacts of sleep on the rate of injured neurons.
May 11, 2020
FAU Announces Winners of COVID-19 Change Challenge. Congratulations to IB PhD students Sean Paz and Toluleke Famuyiwa for winning for their ideas of how to meet the demands of COVID-19 related issues.
May 8, 2020
Research and Teaching Continues for Tiny Earth Lab Team. Upon FAU’s transition to remote learning, the Tiny Earth team kicked into high gear to preserve the efforts of Tiny Earth teaching labs and added 368 antibiotic-producing bacteria to the collection, bringing the total number of antibiotic-producing bacteria to 1,392 at FAU.
May 4, 2020
May 1, 2020
11th Annual GPSA Research Day. Congratulations to Steven Lombardo, IB PhD student who works in the laboratory of Dr. Matt Ajemian, who won 1st place in the Biological and Chemical Sciences division.
April 28, 2020
FAU Researchers Seek Answers to Challenging Environmental Issues. Last Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Researchers at FAU reflected on how their research can impact today’s most challenging environmental questions.
April 25, 2020
Ask A Scientist Features Microbiologist and Biotechnologist
. Dr. Nwadiuto Esiobu was featured in the fourteenth episode of the podcast series. Esiobu answers questions ranging from how does a virus generate, how do we find drugs to block the coronavirus disease, how AI is used to find treatments for diseases, and how a pandemic becomes endemic.
April 22, 2020
IB PhD Candidate Awarded NIH T32 Fellowship. James Jaggard, a graduate student working in the Keene Laboratory, was awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) T32 Fellowship to compete his postdoctoral training at Stanford University, where he will continue investigating sleep.
April 17, 2020
FAU Develops New Way to Identify the Sex of Sea Turtle Hatchlings. Drs. Sarah Milton and Jeanette Wyneken have developed a first-of-its-kind technique that is minimally invasive and greatly enhances the ability to measure neonate turtle sex ratios at population levels across nesting sites worldwide. This research is a crucial step in assessing the impact of climate change on imperiled turtle species.
April 13, 2020
Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement. Drs. Alex Keene, Rod Murphey, and Evelyn Frazier were awarded a National Institutes of Health grant to fund an Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (U-RISE).
April 10, 2020
FAU Teams Up with U.S. Coast Guard to Release Three Baby Sea Turtles. With closed beaches and scuba boats not permitted to travel due to COVID-19, Dr. Jeanette Wyneken and researchers from the FAU Marine Laboratory used their creative skills to release three baby sea turtles to learn more about their offshore travels.
April 7, 2020
FAU: We're here for You. While you’re taking classes online, we want you to know that we are here for you. There are a number of events, programs and services online so we can stay connected, because you’re online and so are we.
April 3, 2020
‘Virtual’ Communication in the Age of Social Distancing. In a world of social distancing and virtual communication due to COVID-19, a first-of-its-kind study compares the fixated gaze of 173 participants in a real-time online connection versus a pre-recorded video.
April 1, 2020
FAU Biology Professor on Apple Podcast Series. Dr. Stephen Kajiura, Professor of Biology, recently did an interview with William McKeever, author of the book Emperors of the Deep. His interview is featured on the episode 'Ocean Warming and Sharks,' which kicks off a 6-part series of interviews with various shark scientists and conservationists.
March 27, 2020
COVID-19 Change Challenge. The Division of Research’s competition is open to students who want to do their part to help the world meet the demands of coronavirus-related challenges.
March 24, 2020
FAU's response to Coronavirus: We're in This Together. As we navigate this unprecedented situation and seek to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak, Florida Atlantic University is coming together and will come out stronger than before.
March 20, 2020
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates. While no cases have been reported within the FAU community, steps are being taken to ensure we are prepared. Faculty, staff and students should regularly check the University’s designated site for updates on the virus, travel and health guidance, and helpful resources.
March 17, 2020
College of Science Highlights IBNS Student. Morgan Slevin, who works in the laboratory of Dr. Rindy Anderson, was recently featured on the College of Science's Student Spotlight website!
March 13, 2020
March 10, 2020
Undergraduate researcher hosts "The Research Diaries" Podcast. Jessica Chomik, a neuroscience student who works in the laboratory of Dr. Alex Keene, is host of the podcast “The Research Diaries” where she shares the “failures, frustrations, and excitement of setting up novel experiments and making new discoveries” from the perspective of an undergraduate student.
March 6, 2020
Cavefish: Out of the Dark, Into the Limelight. Dr. Alex Keene and his university collaborators, Dr. Johanna Kowalko and Dr. Erik Duboué, are helping FAU emerge as a hub for the growing field of cavefish research.
March 4, 2020
Esioubu Lab Featured on the National News. Dr. Nwadiuto Esiobu made the national news this week, reaching over 6.5 million Americans on multiple national and local TV stations and media outlets.
March 2, 2020
IB PhD Student Publishes Paper. Amy Makler, who works in the laboratory of Dr. Waseem Asghar, recently published a review paper entitled "Exosomal biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and patient monitoring" in the scientific journal Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics.
Updated May 1, 2020
