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 FAU Jupiter campus webpage, and the Owl Research & Innovation Magazine.

October 2024

  • Dr. Ale Aleuy is first author on paper "The invasive acanthhocephalan parasite Pachysentis canicola is associated with a declining endemic island fox population on San Miguel Island" published in the International Journal for Parasitology.

  • Dr. Rindy Anderson and her IB Ph.D. candidate, Heather Wolverton, had a review paper accepted to the top orinthology journal, the Journal of Avian Biology. The paper reviews research and terminology around the concept of syntax in animal communication systems and the use of terminology in bird song research.

  • Morgan Slevin, Dr. Rindy Anderson's IB Ph.D. candidate, had a paper accepted to the journal Oikos.  This paper documents aspects of the gut microbiome of a wild songbird, the Northern Cardinal, and reports correlations between microbiome characteristics, body condition, stress hormones, and the expression of sexually-selected color signals.  He also successfully defended his dissertation on October 28, 2024.

  • Dr. Sarah Milton is a co-PI on a $2.2 million grant from the Department of Education along with PI Dr. Donna Chamely-Wiik of OURI (Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry).  The grant is titled, "Catalyzing Research-Intensive Innovations:  Pathway to R1".  THe goal is to positively impact underrepresented students who are completing their postsecondary degrees (undergraduate and doctoral) using evidence-based strategies including academic enrichments, long-term student engagement in research, faculty development, and tiered mentoring.  Academic enrichments include targeted research courses and training in grant writing, transferrable skills including data-science, communication, and critical thinking and other professional development opportunities made available through collaborations with the various participaing units.

  • Dr. Rodrigo Pena's graduate student, Belle Krubitski, was awarded a June Jones Foundation Fellowship and will work under a Graduate Research Assistanship (GRA).  Previously she received a Jupiter Life Science Institute (JLSI) travel award to present at the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago.  Her presentation "Biphasic Activity in Co-Transmission of Glutamate and GABA" garnered good attention.

  • Dr. Rodrigo Pena's post-doctorate student, Cesar Ceballos, received a Jupiter Life Science Institute (JLSI) travel award to the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago and presented "Detection of biphasic synaptic currents from single vesicle release using machine learning".  Dr. Rodrigo Pena was also at the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago and presented "Interleaved single and bursting spiking resonance", which is also a manuscript under review but with a preprint available here

  • Dean Valery Forbes and her post-doctorate student, Ines Haberle, participated in the Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC) 45th annual conference that was held in Fort Worth, Texas from October 20-24.  She co-chaired a session on "Using mechanistic effect modeling to support ecological risk assessment in the context of the Endangered Species Act" in which Ines Harberle gave a talk and a poster and Dean Forbes gave a talk and moderated a panel discussion.  Dean Forbes also helped launch a new SETAC Interest Group on Effect Modeling together with colleagues from industry and government to share best practice, provide training, and raise visibility around this research area.

  • Ph.D. candidate and IMPRS student, Neha Sapkal, working in the Max Planck lab of Dr. Salil Bidaye, recently published a paper in Nature that describes their discovery of a neural circuit that stops fruit flies (literally):  Sapkal, N., Mancini, N.,  Kumar, D. S., Spiller, N., Murakami, K., Vitelli, G., Bargeron, B., Maier, K., Eichler, K., Jefferis, G.S.X., Shiu, P. K., Sterne, G. R., & Bidaye, S. S. (2024).  Neural circuit mechanisms underlying context-specific halting in Drosophila. Nature, 634 (8032), 191-200. Link

  • Dr. Jeanette Wyneken's Honors Biology Research undergraduate student, Noor Neha, won $600 for 2nd place at the recent Eric Shaw Science Social Research Competition for her poster "Size-dependent Differences in Turtle Carapace Sutures:  Understanding Biomechanical and Evolutionary Adaptations".  She was mentored by Dr. Wyneken's IB Ph.D. candidate Ivana Serra.

  • Dr. Jake Francis gave a seminar to the Entomology Department at UF the first week of October about his previous work and newly developing projects at FAU, met with potential new Florida collaborators and explored some N. Florida ecosystems.  He also was invited by the Broward Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society's October meeting and gave a talk titled, Pollination Ecology in Action:  From Sierra Nevadan Meadows to Florida's Greenspaces.

  • Morgan Slevin, Dr. Rindy Anderson's IB Ph.D. candidate, presented his work on cardinal microbiomes at the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station on October 9th. 

  • Set to Soar: Senior Vanessa Belizaire - Senior Medical Biology major Vanessa Belizaire is poised to graduate from Florida Atlantic in December 2024. While her undergraduate days will soon come to a close, she’s eager to continue her educational journey and hopes to enroll in a dual M.D./Ph.D. degree.

  • Dr. Chelsea Bennice, Dr. Jeanette Wyneken's post-doctorate student and Dr. Randy Brook's former student on octopus research, was featured in the October publicaton of the diving organization, PADI

  • We welcome Ken You Morisseau, the new Program Coordinator for the IB Program!

  • New Parasite Revealed Amid Decline of California’s Channel Island Fox  -  Results of the study, published in the International Journal for Parasitology, identify the parasite as Pachysentis canicola, a common acanthocephalan in multiple carnivore species in mainland North America. The parasite was detected in 69% of the necropsied foxes from San Miguel Island and was not found in any of the other five Channel Island fox subspecies.

September 2024

 

August 2024

  • Rain or Shine? How Rainfall Impacts Size of Sea Turtle Hatchlings  -  An internationally collaborative study by Florida Atlantic University's Dr. Jeanette Wyneken and led by the University of Tübingen in Germany, delves into how fluctuating rainfall impacts the development of sea turtle hatchlings, revealing that it has a more profound effect than changes in air temperature   .

  • Pfizer Hires Schmidt College of Science Alumna Shilei Richards  -  Newly minted college graduate Shilei Richards ’24, B.S. Biological Sciences and Mechanical Engineering, is making her way to Boston   .

  • FAU Science Co-PI on $1.3M Collaborative Conservation Project  - The United States National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation have announced a $1.3 million collaborative grant for a project designed to cost-effectively identify and track wildlife using artificial intelligence. Dr. Sarah Milton and Dr. Matt Ajemian (Assoc. Research Professor and director of Fisheries Ecology & Conservation Lab at FAU Harbor Branch) are co-PI's on the grant.

  • FAU Lands $1.3M NSF Grant to Boost Dryland Soil Quality  -  To enhance understanding of climate resistance of individual microbes and to improve microbial remediations to reduce soil degradation under climate change, Florida Atlantic University's Dr. Vanessa Fernandes has received a $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The team will mentor 3 graduate and 24 undergraduate students as well as support 3 "Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) students.

  • Dr. Rindy Anderson takes on the role of Associate Director of the IB Program

  • Dr. Samantha Kuschke  jumpstarts career in academia and sea turtle research through new postdoctoral program. Dr. Kuschke, along with Tiffany Roberts Briggs, Ph.D., chair, Associate Professor, and director of the Coastal Studies Lab in the Department of Geosciences in the Schmidt College of Science, will investigate the presence of a fungal organism (Fusarium sp.) in leatherback sea turtle nests and in the sand on local beaches.  This fungal organism causes sea turtle egg fusariosis (STEF), which can lead to death of sea turtle eggs.  Read more here:  https://www.fau.edu/science/news/dr-samantha-kuschke-jumpstarts-career/

  • Sadelyn De Los Santos, B.S. Biology '15, MCMSc, PA-C Alumna is a physician associate at Cardiac Electrophysiology in Boca Raton and credits her academic experience as a Biological Sciences student in fostering her love of learning and preparation for future graduate studies and her medical career. https://www.fau.edu/science/news/alumna-spotlight-sadelyn-de-los-santos-2015/

 

Updated November 5, 2024