Research by Area
DEVELOPMENT AND DISEASE
The Development and Disease Cluster brings together faculty, postdoctoral fellows and students with interests in revealing the molecular bases of both normal and abnormal cell and tissue biology. We have focus areas in cancer, microbial pathogenesis, neuroscience, development and stem cells, plant biology and bioenergetics. Experimental approaches in physiology, cell biology, molecular biology, genetics and advanced cell imaging are interleaved throughout these major focus areas. Many model systems inform our research endeavors: mice and other mammals, zebrafish, avian embryos, Drosophila, Aplysia, yeast, Arabodopsis, maize and a variety of bacterial and viral pathogens.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
The Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Cluster (EEB) is a dynamic and cohesive research and teaching community with interests spanning ecology, evolution, organismal biology, conservation, and integrating fields across the diversity of life sciences with biology education. Our focal research areas are Evolutionary Ecology, Physiology and Behavior, Biology Learning Research, and Applied Ecology and Conservation Biology. Many faculty members belong to multiple focus areas, and these areas include faculty from other departments due to the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research programs. We use laboratory, field, and computational methods to study populations and communities in Indiana and around the world, and we strive to contribute to the important role of life scientists in effectively communicating biological principles in the classroom and beyond.
MOLECULAR BIOSCIENCES
The Molecular Biosciences Cluster comprises faculty with interests at the molecular level (that is, at the cellular level and below). Molecular Biosciences includes focus areas in 1) Genetics, Genomics, and Computational Biology, 2) Microbiology, and 3) Structural Biology and Biophysics. This cluster uses a wide variety of experimental approaches ranging from X-ray crystallography, NMR, Cryo-electron microscopy, electron tomography, and spectroscopic techniques for examining and determining molecular structures, to molecular biological, genetic, and genomic techniques for studying genes, genomes, and proteomes, to computational techniques as they apply to nucleic acid and protein structures, bioinformatics, genomics and systems biology.