Student Research

In the Biology Department, we especially enjoy working on research projects with students and we currently have 48 student-faculty research investigations in progress. Many students conduct these projects as part of a university or departmental honors, some enroll for independent study credits and others participate in research simply for the experience. These investigations are funded by a variety of intramural and extramural grants and in a typical academic year, our department procures about $250,000 - $500,000 to support research. The following is an overview of these faculty sponsored investigations.

• Dr. Judy Cebra-Thomas
  Developmental biology. Developmental basis for evolutionary change.
• Dr. Dominique Didier
  Ichthyology, phylogenetic systematics, and taxonomy.
• Dr. Jessica Fellmeth
  Reproductive Genetics: 1) Investigating the role of CENP-C in prophase of meiosis using transgenic fruit flies. 2) Large-scale RNAi screen of the entire Drosophila genome to identify previously unknown genes involved in meiosis. Use of RNA interference techniques to knock down gene expression of novel targets to identify genes involved in chromosome segregation and fertility.
• Dr. Shawn Gallagher (Dr. Gallager is a neurobiologist in the Psychology Department and often works with biology majors.)
  Clinical eye research. Mydriatics and tear formation.
• Dr. Aaron Haines
  Conservation and wildlife biology. Director of the Applied Conservation Lab.
• Dr. Christopher Hardy
  Ecology, biogeography and antimicrobial properties of Commelina.
  Illustrated guide to invasive species of 'the Bush'. Botanical Illustration.
• Dr. Brent Horton
  Vertebrate ecological physiology and behavioral ecology
• Dr. John Hoover
  Design-based stereology in neuroscience.
• Dr. Maja Klosinska
  Epigenetics, plant genetics & plant development
• Dr. Heather Lehman
  Molecular mechanisms causing cancerous esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells to invade and spread to adjacent organs.
• Dr. Laura Ramos-Sepulveda
  Applied, Molecular, and Environmental Microbiology Research. 
• Dr. Eric Ryndock
  Virology: 1) Designing a new detection assay for Powassan virus. 2) Comparison of genetic control between human papillomavirus types.
• Dr. Christopher Stieha
  Plant Ecology, Plant-Herbivore Interactions, Agro-ecology, Quantitative Ecology, Statistics
• Dr. Ryan Wagner
  Time lapse photography of plant tropisms.
• Dr. Laura Weise Cross
  Investigating mechanisms of hypoxia-induced structural remodeling of the pulmonary vessel wall, which is characterized by excessive PASMC proliferation and migration using interdisciplinary approaches at the intersection of cell and molecular biology, genetics, genomics, and organ-system physiology.