Department of Biological Sciences

Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology

(Eukaryotic gene expression) Control of eukaryotic gene expression and replication; DNA structure; virus evolution.

Detection of viable foodborne pathogens using bateriophage; automated extraction of nucleic acids from various matrices; enumeration of microorganisms (i.e. pathogens and other organisms) using quantitative PCR; the use of bioreporters in bioelectronics; metabolic engineering; detection of problematic microorganisms in industrial environments; construction of recombinant bacterial strains to rapidly evaluate antimicrobial products; microbial ecology.

(Neurobiology and physiology) Central auditory neurophysiology and neuroanatomy at the systems and cellular levels.

(Structural molecular biology; biochemistry) Protein structure and function; X-ray crystallography; metalloenzymes; biodegradation of PCBs and related compounds.

Besides my busy teaching schedule, I manage to remain active in research through collaborations with other faculty members.  My research interests are in molecular genetics and genomics, and I have primarily studied genes of the immune system.  However, recent research has led to the study of the genetics of human parasites, focusing on protease sequences and microRNAs of Schistosome parasites.

(Biochemistry; physiology) Biochemistry and physiology of the visual process; evolution of vision; transport and utilization of vitamin A in the body; genes for retinoid-binding proteins, hereditary retinal degenerations.

(Endocrine physiology) Hormonal regulation of mammary gland development; hormone binding protein function.

(Cell and developmental biology) Membrane trafficking; molecular genetics; cell polarity; development; signal transduction.

(X-ray crystallography and protein chemistry) ABC transporters and membranefusion proteins.

Structure/function of membrane proteins involved in charge translocation and protein import: photosynthetic electron transport and energy transduction; cytochrome complexes; colicins: ion channels, cellular import, receptor function; structure-function/membrane interactions of Parkinson’s protein, a-synuclein.

(Microbiology) Mechanisms of the responses of bacteria to osmotic stress; genetic engineering of plant cells with increased tolerance of salinity stress.

Evolutionary genetics; molecular ecology and evolution; natural history; conservation biology; wildlife and fisheries management.

(Global change ecology) Responses and feedbacks of terrestrial ecosystems to climate and atmospheric change; Biodiversity and biological invasions

(Science education) Professional preparation and development of both elementary and secondary teachers; collaborative problem solving and its role in the teaching and learning of science; the nature of science in science education and its importance for both teachers and students.

Plant Ecology and Evolutionary Biology - Evolution of the ecological niche, evolution of distribution patterns, plant population biology, community ecology and evolutionary biology.

(Neuroscience and Developmental Biology)  Development of the inner ear

Evolutionary Ecology, Behavioral Ecology, Visual Ecology) Evolution of
visual systems in birds; anti-predator and foraging behaviors;
human-wildlife interactions.

(Structural biology) Structural cell biology of infection, immunity, and aging.

1) Evaluating the long-term impact that research-based introductory biology lab experiences have on biology students, 2) Understanding student and expert reasoning when creating graphical representations of biological data, 3) Investigating the effectiveness of explicit instruction of argumentation pattern on the development of student writing about their data, 4) neuroanatomy

(Plant molecular biology) Mechanism of the transfer to and expression of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens Ti-plasmid in plant cells.

Structural Basis for RNA function.

(Computational Systems Biology; Bioinformatics) Computational analysis of biological networks and the macromolecular components that they comprise.  My interests range from the relationship between patterns in macromolecular sequences and the evolution, structure and function of the corresponding molecules (RNA and protein), to the biological networks that control and integrate the information of that controls the development and function of the cell. In addition my work includes development of databases and computational tools for functional genomics, and the development of systems that federate knowledge across multiple electronic resources.

(Neurobiology) Intracellular organelle transport in neurons.

(Evolutionary ecology and behavior) Evolution of mating systems: influence of social and ecological factors on reproductive tactics; estimation of reproductive success; patterns of sexual dimorphism; environmental risk assessment of genetically modified organisms.

(Developmental biology) Animal development and regeneration.

(single particle cryo-EM, electron crystallography, electron tomography, biophysics) Structure of viruses (bacteriophages, alphaviruses and flaviviruses), macromolecular complexes, and membrane proteins; technique developments in cryo-EM for structural determination of macromolecular machines at atomic resolutions; image processing; computational biology; distributed computing

(Plant molecular biology) Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Plant-phytopathogen interactions. Methods of teaching of molecular biology laboratories.

(Bioinformatics, computational biology) protein tertiary structure prediction/comparison, protein sequence analysis, evolution of protein families, metabolic/regulatory pathway analysis.

(Cell, Molecular and Cancer biology)

(Eukaryotic molecular biology) Gene expression during mammalian development; cancer model systems.

(Molecular biology and animal virology) Viral gene expression; virus-host interactions; pathogenesis; virus receptors and virus assembly.

Virus assembly occurs in the complex environment of the cell and is dependent upon viral and cellular components being properly correlated in time and space. Our goal is to use newly developed methods in electron microscope tomography to reconstruct three-dimensional images of cells to determine the spatial position of these components in the cell at molecular resolution.  From these three-dimensional images we are able to visualize the virus particles during virus entry, viral genome packaging and virus assembly, which is allowing us to address many outstanding questions in virology.

(Development and Disease) Disease-causing gene network and novel therapies for retinal degeneration

(Evolution and population biology) Evolutionary genetics of plant pathogen systems; plant-pathogen coevolution.

(Evolutionary ecology; behavioral ecology) Animal Communication, sensory ecology, hearing and call complexity in birds, use of dynamic game theory in animal behavior

(Cellular microbiology) Type IV protein secretion of Legionella pneumophila; intracellular multiplication and trafficking of bacterial pathogens.

(Plant cell and molecular biology; genomics) Plant extracellular matrix and cell differentiation

(Population biology; genetics) Host-parasite coevolution; influence of parasitism on host life-history patterns; molecular epidemiology; genetic diversity of parasite populations

Evolutionary genetics & genomics, quantitative genetics, and physiological ecology of aquatic organisms

(Biomedical Engineering) Neuroprostheses, systems neuroscience, and neurotechnologies.

(Molecular neurogenetics) Signal transduction; synaptic transmission.

(Physiology) Vascular smooth muscle physiology and signal transduction, physiology and evolution, physiology education.

(Structural biology; computational chemistry and biology) Signal transduction; viral protein structure and function; molecular recognition; enzymatic catalysis; protein dynamics; NMR structure determination.

Machine learning, computational biology, and Bayesian statistics

(Conservation biology; tropical ecology; behavioral ecology; community ecology) Stability and diversity of natural communities.  How does landscape ("beta") diversity depend upon species ecological specializations, and how vulnerable are communities to anthropogenic change?

(Biology; developmental neurobiology) Cellular, molecular, and genetic studies of Drosophila retinal development.

(Neurophysiology, membrane physiology, biophysics) Ion channel function.

(Molecular biology; biophysics) Structure of picornaviruses (rhinoviruses, Mengo virus, coxsackievirus, poliovirus), parvoviruses, alphaviruses and bacteriophages, fX174, f29, T4; molecular evolution.

(Neurobiology) Cellular and molecular analysis of learning; cellular response to neural injury.

(Molecular virology) Entry of retroviruses and other enveloped viruses into cells; mechanism of enzymatic phosphoryl transfer.

(microbiology) Photosynthetic membranes - structure, function, and assembly in cyanobacteria; functional genomics and impact of environmental factors on photosynthesis; analysis of global regulation with microarrays; regulation of photosynthesis and N₂-fixation in unicellular cyanobacteria.

(Plant cell/developmental biology) Cytoskeletal function during plant development and cellular morphogenesis; cytoskeletal response to environmental signals and host-cell response to microbes.

(Biophysics; molecular biology; biochemistry) Macromolecular structure and assembly using X-ray crystallography; membrane associated proteins; enzyme structure and function.

(Eukaryotic molecular biology) Chromatin structure and gene regulation; biotechnology.

(Cell biology; neurobiology) neuronal growth cone motility and guidance, cell adhesion and migration, cytoskeletal dynamics, signal transduction, nervous system development, advanced light microscopy

Molecular genetics, live cell imaging, biochemistry, computational modeling of plant cell morphogenesis

(Eukaryotic molecular biology) Oncogene expression in eukaryotic cells.

(Molecular genetics) Molecular genetics; transmembrane signal transduction; cellular microbiology.

(Animal behavior) Ecological and demographic effects on mammalian dispersal; genetic estimators of dispersal in fragmented habitats; adaptive aspects of mammalian social behavior.

(Cellular microbiology) Salmonella typhimurium Type III secretion; actin cytoskeleton rearrangements and bacteria-host interactions.

continuing lecturer