Congratulations to Lozier Lab graduate student Sam Heraghty and Kocot Lab graduate student Nick Roberts who received honorable mentions on their NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program applications! NSF accords Honorable Mention to meritorious applicants who do not receive Fellowship awards. This is considered a significant national academic achievement. Although these students do not receive a monetary award, they are granted access to the XSEDE high-performance computing cluster.

Read More from BSC graduate students Sam Heragty and Nick Roberts received NSF GRFP honorable mentions

Jeana Yates has been awarded The University of Alabama’s Council on Community-Based Partnerships premiere award in the area of community engagement for her work with the Biology Outreach Program. This honor recognizes the program as an Outstanding Faculty/Staff-Initiated Engagement Effort for 2020 and includes $2,000 of funding support. The Biology Outreach Program trains undergraduate biology majors to create and teach hands-on STEM lessons to over 1,000 K-12 students annually in the Tuscaloosa County and City School Systems and community partners […]

Read More from Jeana Yates community engagement recognized by University of Alabama’s Council on Community-Based Partnerships

BSC graduate students Nate Sturm and Jennifer Fortunato were both successful at the UA Three Minute Thesis (3MT) semi-finals and advanced to the UA finals on Monday, November 11th. . There was stiff competition at the finals, but Nate Sturm was awarded first place and Jennifer Fortunato was awarded fourth place. Nate will advance to the southeast regional competition in March in Birmingham.

Read More from BSC graduate students Nate Sturm and Jennifer Fortunato win 1st and 4th place at UA 3MT Finals

In a recently signed agreement with The Wemp Co. will sponsor Dr. Lukasz M. Ciesla to analyze its hemp. The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, or Farm Bill, declassified hemp (all parts of the Cannabis plant containing less than 0.3% THC) as an illegal drug, deeming hemp as an agriculture commodity that can be grown, processed and handled by those with the appropriate licenses. Dr. Ciesla will examine the plants to check the level of non-psychoactive compounds to help select the […]

Read More from Dr. Ciesla in industry partnership with hemp grower

A new study, published in Nature Climate Change, warns that winter carbon dioxide from the world’s permafrost regions could increase by 41% if human-caused greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current pace. This study was supported by NASA ABoVE and conducted in coordination with the Permafrost Carbon Network and more than 50 collaborating institutions. See coverage of this publication in UA News.

Read More from New study co-authord by Dr. Greg Starr warns about carbon dioxide release from permafrost

On October 9th the Department of Biological Sciences Three Minute Thesis competition was held. The department-level winners are: First place: Nate Sturm Second place: Jennifer Fortunato Alternate: Sommer Starr These students competed at the semi-finals on October 24th with other graduate students from across campus. All three did an amazing job and both Nathaniel Sturm and Jennifer Fortunato were selected to progress to the finals on Monday, November 11 at 6pm in the Rast room of the Bryant Conference Center. […]

Read More from Congratulations to 3 Minute Thesis semi-finalists Nathaniel Sturm, Jennifer Fortunato, and Sommer Starr

A new study in Scientific Reports by Dr. Urmila Maitra, Mr. Michael Scaglione, Dr. Stanislava Chtarbanova, and Dr. Janis O’Donnell used transcriptomic profiling in a Drosophila Parkinson’s Disease model in response to paraquat-induced oxidative stress. Their results revealed extensive regulation of innate immune response genes following paraquat ingestion. This work provides a novel link between paraquat exposure and innate immune system modulation underlying environmental toxin-induced neurodegeneration, demonstrating the importance of the innate immune system in Parkinson’s Disease pathogenesis.  

Read More from New BSC study on innate immune responses to paraquat exposure in a Drosophila model of Parkinson’s disease

Saint Louis University Museum’s Genetic Resources & Collections (GRC) amassed a collection of approximately 63,000 catalogued and vouched specimens or tissues from over 6,600 species of freshwater and marine fishes since its beginning in 1983. The GRC contains important temporal samples, extensive within-species geographic sampling for North American taxa, a broad taxonomic sampling of freshwater fishes from Asia, with an emphasis on SE Asia, and many globally distributed marine species. Many of these specimens were collected with funding from NSF […]

Read More from Dr. Harris awarded NSF RAPID to rescue Saint Louis University’s frozen tissue collection and house at UA Ichthyological Collection