A UA-led research group has identified a link between the insulin-like signaling pathway, which regulates aging, glycolysis, and neurodegeneration caused by protein misfolding. The research was carried out in the laboratories of UA faculty members Guy Caldwell, Kim Caldwell and Janis O’Donnell, and at Harvard University.  The report will appear in the July 1 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism.

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Congratulations to the following undergraduate students who were honored at the 2014 2014 Undergraduate Research Conference. Braxton Greer – 1st place, Oral Presentations (Mentor – Dr. Stevan Marcus) Grant Fairchild – 3rd place, Oral Presentation (Mentor – Dr. Kimberlee Caldwell) Matthew Larkin – Honorable Mention, Oral Presentation (Mentor – Dr. Stephen Secor) Hunter Dean – 2nd place, Poster Presentation (Mentor – Dr. Janis O’Donnell) Meagan Reif and Carrie Fisher – 4th place, Poster Presentation (Mentor – Dr. Stephen Secor) Robert […]

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Trey Melton was selected from a national pool of applicants to participate in March 2014 at the Bodega Bay Workshop in Applied Phylogenetics, sponsored by the Bodega Marine Laboratory and the University of California, Davis.

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The research of graduate student Scotty DePriest has been featured on the Graduate School spotlight page. Scotty’s research is on the invasive alga Grateloupia taiwanensis, under the supervision of Dr. Juan Lopez-Bautista.

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Peter Scott, a graduate student in the Rissler lab, has been awarded a Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation for his dissertation “Species limits, hybrid zones, and systematics of the North American turtle genus Sternotherus”  

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A team of researchers that included graduate student Bryan Martinez and Drs. Guy and Kim Caldwell have shown that the Hsp 104 chaperone protein from yeast can be engineered to refold a variety of misfolded proteins, and mitigates some of the neurodegenerative effects of protein misfolding in a C. elegans model of Parkinson’s Disease. The work appeared in the journal Cell.

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Dr. Stephen Secor is part of a multi-investigator team that recently published the annotated genome sequence of the Burmese python Python molurus bivittatus.     

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Students in Biology classes taught by Drs. Rosianna Gray and Kim Lackey contributed over 2500 toys to the Daughters of Isis for their annual holiday drive.

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Three Biological Sciences graduate students have advanced to the finals of the Three Minute Thesis competition. Julia Stevens placed 3rd in heat 1, Suja Rajan placed 1st in heat 2, and Rami Ajjuri placed 3rd in heat 3. They will compete again in the final round of 15, on Wednesday, Nov 20th at 6:00 PM in the Russell Lecture Hall.

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A team of researchers that includes faculty members Guy and Kim Caldwell and former UA graduate student Michelle Thompson has identified a compound that ameliorates the neuronal deterioration that causes Parkinson’s Disease. Local news coverage is here and here.  

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