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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. 

  • Sea Anemone

  • Telomeres

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

  • Drosophila

    Drosophila are small flies, typically pale yellow to reddish brown to black, with red eyes. Many species, including the noted Hawaiian picture-wings, have distinct black patterns on the wings. The plumose (feathery) arista, bristling of the head and thorax, and wing venation are characters used to diagnose the family.

  • ERK1/2 signaling pathway

     ERK1/2 signaling pathway regulates exocytosis and tumor invasion through phosphorylation of the exocyst complex. 

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



Time and temperature matter in plant thermotolerance

Dr. Nick Kaplinsky, Swarthmore College
- | Leidy 109 and Zoom

Abstract: Plant responses to heat are finely tuned with even one degree differences affecting the kinetics of induced heat shock responses. Using a genetic approach, we identified a role for intron retention in…



The Panorama: Proteins, Pathogens, and Science in Peril

Dr. Brandon Ugbunu, Yale University
- | Fagin 116 and Zoom

In this seminar, I will discuss various projects in protein evolution and mathematical epidemiology that examine the forces the dictate disease dynamics. Lastly, I will discuss my work at the intersection between…



Deciphering host invasion mechanisms of apicomplexan parasites by cryo-electron tomography

Dr. Yi-Wei Chang, UPenn Perelman School of Medicine
- | Leidy 109 and Zoom

Twitter/X: @yiweichang

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