Home

  • 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. 

  • Consequences of HD-ZIPIII dysregulation

    How do organisms create such complex and beautiful shapes? And how do they do it so reproducibly? Plants are an excellent system to study these questions. For instance, the HD-ZIPIII family of transcription factors are >700 million years old and regulate nearly all aspects of plant development. Consequences of HD-ZIPIII dysregulation on plant morphology are severe (pictured here). Understanding how HD-ZIPIII proteins work is a central theme of the lab.

  • Archaea

    Haloferax volcanii motility mutants stab-inoculated on a 0.3% agar motility plate. The “halos” and “rings” likely reflect the motility of this archaeon following gradients of attractant or repellent chemicals. 

  • 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.

  • Escherichia coli

    Escherichia coli cells with fluorescently labeled chromosomal loci. 

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



Curvature dynamics of biomembranes: role of membrane viscosity and interleaflet friction

Petia Vlahovska, Northwestern University
- | DRL 4C6 and via Zoom

Abstract: 

Lipid bilayers are the main structural component of the membranes that shape and compartmentalize cells. Cell architecture is highly dynamic and…



The evolution of immunity and pathogenesis within environmental battlegrounds

Dr. Tera Levin, University of Pittsburgh
- | Leidy 109 and Zoom

Abstract; New infectious diseases routinely emerge from natural reservoirs, with sometimes devastating consequences on human populations. How does this happen? Specifically, what events within natural…