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Dr. Gui Becker awarded NSF grant to study impacts of rainfall variability on wildlife disease transmission

Dr. Gui Becker has been awarded an NSF grant as lead PI to study the impacts of rainfall variability on wildlife disease transmission. The project titled” Linking Host Life History, Movement Ecology, and Climate to Predict Epizootics in Megadiverse Tropical Amphibian Communities” is global in scope, with field sites in three megadiverse tropical regions: Brazil, Peru, and Cameroon. By advancing disease transmission theory for diverse species assemblages, this research will provide novel insights into community-level impacts of emerging diseases and […]

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Email Migration, Software Upgrade

BSC Faculty and Staff, later this month your mailbox will be migrated to the Microsoft Office 365 cloud environment.   About Your Email Migration:  The migrations of the College of Arts and Sciences mailboxes will occur Friday, March 27 – Tuesday, March 31. During the migration period, you may experience brief periods of inaccessibility while your email is migrated; however, there is no action required of you during the migration.   Upgrade Software:  Before your mailbox is migrated, your Office software should be […]

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BSC graduate student Meghan Yap-Chiongco awarded best poster at SEEC

Congratulations to Meghan Yap-Chiongco for winning Best Poster at the 2019 Southeastern Ecology and Evolution Conference in Auburn, AL! Meghan is a Ph.D. student in the Kocot lab. Her dissertation research is focused on biomineralization in Mollusca. Most studies on molluscan biomineralized structures have focused on conchiferan (e.g., snail or bivalve) shells. Aplacophorans are from the other branch of the molluscan tree and unlike most other molluscs, they lack shells. Instead, aplacophorans are covered in a flexible coat of armor […]

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BSC graduate student Rebecca Varney (Kocot lab) wins best talk at World Congress of Malacology

Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Rebecca Varney for winning a best talk award at the World Congress of Malacology for her presentation on the genome of the chiton Acanthopleura granulata (Mollusca: Polyplacophora)! Abstract of the talk: Molluscan genomic resources continue to increase, but with a marked bias toward bivalves and gastropods. Chitons are models for molluscan biomineralization, producing shell valves, sclerites, and radulas with teeth coated with magnetite (iron). Here we present the first genome of a chiton, the first from […]

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Dr. Ciesla awarded NSF grant to study a novel magnetic separation method to isolate compounds for drug discovery

Natural products are rich in biologically active (bioactive) compounds and serve as great sources for drug discovery. One of the major challenges in screening drug leads from natural products is the lack of effective tools to identify and separate the bioactive compounds. This project with PI Dr. Yuping Baio (CBE) will develop and characterize a new magnetic separation approach based on cell membrane-encapsulated iron oxide superparticles (a cluster of nanoparticles) for the separation and identification of bioactive compounds from natural […]

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Alabama-Auburn collaboration leads to discovery of a novel genetic code in hemichordates

Hemichordates are a group of work-like animals closely related to our own phylum. A new collaborative study between the Kocot lab and the Halanych lab at Auburn University analyzed the mitochondrial genomes of this evolutionary important lineage. Contrary to the current understanding of the mitochondrial genetic code,  comparative analyses suggest that UAA encodes tyrosine instead of a “stop” codon in some hemichordates and that AAA encodes lysine, contradicting the previous assumption that hemichordates share the same genetic code with echinoderms […]

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Bama Biology Bootcamp for incoming BSC majors (and others) 8/11-8/17

Bama Biology Bootcamp (B³) is a one-week (August 11th – 17th, 2018) intensive program for incoming Biological Sciences majors and other freshmen enrolled in  BSC114 or 118 for the Fall 2018 semester. Its purpose is to help first year college students make a successful transition from the expectations of high school to those of college, setting the stage for a great college experience. B³ participants will: Get a jump-start on the BSC 114 and 118 course. Meet the Biological Sciences faculty, Department […]

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Assistant Professor Positions in Ecohydrology, Macroevolutionary Comparative and Quantitative Biology, and Cellular & Molecular Physiology

The Department of Biological Sciences at The University of Alabama invites applications for three full-time (9- month) tenure-track faculty positions at the rank of Assistant Professor in Ecohydrology, Macroevolutionary Comparative and Quantitative Biology, and Cellular & Molecular Physiology to begin August 2018. For the Ecohydrology position, the successful applicant will establish an extramurally funded and internationally recognized research program centered on the interactions and feedbacks between ecological and hydrological processes through any component of the water cycle. Applicants should employ […]

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Assistant teaching professor positions available in Biological Sciences at UA

The Department of Biological Sciences at The University of Alabama seeks to hire three assistant teaching professor positions for Fall 2018 start dates. These are non-tenure track renewable contract (NTRC) faculty, each with three-year contracts, subject to annual reviews.   Position 1: Assistant Teaching Professor Job # 0810897 Primary teaching duties will entail large-enrollment undergraduate courses, such as Introductory Biology, Microbiology, and / or non-majors Human Anatomy and Physiology. A course in the successful candidate’s own specialization may be considered, […]

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