Department of Biology

Ecologists uncover the hidden power of animals in shaping ecosystems

UF ecologists Amanda Subalusky and Chris Dutton reveal the critical impact of animals on ecosystem health through their role in nutrient cycling, emphasizing the interconnectedness of life within natural habitats. Ecologists uncover the hidden power of animals in shaping ecosystems

Novel Metal Homeostasis Protein in C. elegans Functions as a Resistance Mechanism to Pre-Clinical Anticancer Fungal Toxins

By screening over 40,000 compounds, a team led by Biology’s Keith Choe, discovered that a novel metal homeostasis protein in C. elegans functions as a resistance mechanism to pre-clinical anticancer fungal toxins. The team also made the cover of the journal: ACS Chemical Biology: In vivo screening of 41716 compounds in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans […]

University of Florida Led Consortium of Scientists Awarded $12.5 Million Grant From The National Science Foundation

University of Florida led consortium of scientists have been awarded a $12.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish a Polyploidy Integration and Innovation Institute to study the wider context of polyploidy throughout the tree of life; a phenomenon affecting agriculture, cancer, biodiversity and more. The award titled, “Polyploidy: Integration Across Scales and […]

Karen Bjorndal elected AAAS Lifetime Fellow!

Congratulations to Department of Biology Professor Karen Bjorndal who was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) as a Lifetime Fellow for the 2023 Class. The Lifetime Fellows program celebrates Karen’s many accomplishments, mentorship and acknowledges her professional impact in marine ecology and sea turtle conservation. https://www.aaas.org/news/aaas-welcomes-502-scientists-and-engineers-who-join-ranks-fellows

Ed Braun publishes in Nature AND PNAS on the same day!

Congratulations to Ed Braun, publishing related manuscripts in both Nature [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07323-1] and PNAS [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2319506121] on the same day – April 1st! Ed’s PNAS paper is entitled “A region of suppressed recombination misleads neoavian phylogenomics”. Ed and his colleagues found that it is possible use computational methods to detect a strong signal of chromosomal rearrangements that occurred […]