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  • Field Work

    Many genes that organisms use to regulate their mutualists are also used to defend against parasites and pathogens. The shared genetic control of beneficial and harmful symbioses raises the intriguing possibility that susceptibility to infection is a pleiotropic cost of mutualism. Our goal is to understand how a genetic tradeoff between attracting mutualists and repelling parasites has shaped the genomic architecture of traits mediating species interactions, and how ongoing conflict influences adaptation. 

  • Arabidopsis

    Wild-type and transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing miR156, a microRNA that promotes juvenility and increases the rate of leaf initiation

  • Larix siberica

    Siberian Larch, taken at our field site near Lake Khovsgol in north-central Mongolia.  We are analyzing tree-ring width and stable isotopes of the tree rings to reconstruct climate, and Larch responses to climate change, over the past century as the temperature in Mongolia has risen.  

  • Courtship in Drosophila

    Various courtship songs produced by Drosophila species

  • Telomeres

    Giant ‘polytene’ chromosomes (white) from a fruit fly with a fluorescent probe (red) that hybridizes to a telomere-restricted DNA repeat.

Biology is fundamental to our changing world. The 21st century challenge for our students, our scholars, and the greater society is to understand our place in this changing world and to create fundamental knowledge for informed policies, economies, and social structure.

Upcoming Events



Seminar with Alexander Petroff

Dr. Alexander Petroff, Clark University
- | Zoom


Protein Engineering in Industry: Designing Antibodies to Bind, Enzymes to Catalyze, and Proteins to Express

Dr. Jeliazko Jeliazkov, GSK
- | Leidy 109 and via Zoom.

Abstract: Recent advances in computational protein design promise to accelerate the development of therapeutic molecules, however methods that are published in scientific literature do not always translate…



Seminar with Brian Camley

Dr. Brian Camley, Johns Hopkins University
- | Zoom