Category: Biology

'Tis the season to celebrate for Texas A&M biologists Richard Gomer and Darrell Pilling, whose biotechnology company Promedior Inc. sold in mid-November to Swiss drug maker Roche for $1.4 billion dedicated to the global life-saving fight against fibrotic disease.

In research reported in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," Texas A&M biologists have found genetic evidence linking circadian clock genes and clock-regulated molecular pathways to the Monarch butterfly's uncanny ability to sense changes in day length that trigger their annual migration and the reproductive dormancy they exhibit during it — a clock-controlled seasonal response the biologists prove is clearly connected to the vitamin A pathway in the iconic insect's brain.

In a recent paper published in the September issue of the "Journal of Microscopy," Texas A&M biologist Lawrence Griffing makes the case for an unidentified gentleman in a circa-1680s painting by one of England’s first successful female artists, Mary Beale, actually being the long-sought portrait of 17th century scientist Robert Hooke.

Sophomore biology major Ryan Rahman '22 has been selected as one of two 2019-20 Texas A&M Beckman Scholars, a prestigious award intended to recognize and support outstanding undergraduate researchers in chemistry and the biological sciences.

Congratulations to Dr. Richard A. Box '61, one of 10 Aggies honored this year with the university's highest former student honor, the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Box, a chairman emeritus of the Texas A&M System Board of Regents and former commanding general of the Texas State Guard who helped lead the state's response during hurricanes Katrina and Rita, received his bachelor's in zoology in 1961 from Texas A&M.

Congratulations to Texas A&M biologist Deborah Bell-Pedersen, one of five Texas A&M faculty named to the inaugural class of University Professorship holders, a new distinction intended to recognize, elevate and amplify faculty achievement and impact.

On April 28, friends, family and colleagues across the Texas A&M campus gathered to remember Texas A&M professor Wesley Thompson, a neurobiologist who joined the Department of Biology in 2013 and explored various developmental aspects of the simplest of all vertebrae synapses, the neuromuscular junction, to gain insight into how the brain and overall human body adjust to aging, disease and injury.

Texas A&M biologist Asha Rao has been selected by the Texas A&M Office of Sustainability to receive the 2019 Faculty Sustainability Champion Award for her efforts to promote recycling across the Texas A&M Department of Biology.

Timing is everything, including with regard to eating. In research published April 16 in Cell Reports, Texas A&M biologist Jerome Menet’s laboratory found that feeding time influences the liver’s biological clock in mice, with possible implications for overall physiology and health.

Two prominent Texas A&M University former students from the College of Science have earned selection by the college for its highest alumni honor, induction into its Academy of Distinguished Former Students. Col. (Ret) Harry Kay Lesser Jr., Class of 1970, of Herndon, Va.; and Joel E. Richter, M.D., Class of 1971, of Tampa, Fla., will […]

Congratulations to Texas A&M biologist Richard Gomer, who has been named to the inaugural class of National Academy of Inventors Senior Members in recognition of the achievement and contributions of academic inventors worldwide.

While some Aggies spent their winter break sleeping in and visiting family, sophomore biology major and Kingwood native Alexandra Bishop '21 fed squirrel monkeys bananas by hand, swam with pink river dolphins and made a rubber ball straight from the tree's sap during a "once in a lifetime amazing adventure" in the Brazilian Amazon.

After 10 years of observing communications habits in primates, Texas A&M zoology graduate Lisa O'Bryan '08 is taking on one of the most complex species to date -- college students at Rice University, where in January she will begin studying real-world social networking in a campus setting with the goal of improving societal interactions on a broader scale.

For Texas A&M senior biology major Ashley Hayden '19, college has proven to be one accomplishment-filled learning experience after another -- an invaluable season of transition set to culminate next May in a fulfilled promise she made to her mother as a high school senior.

Texas A&M Biology remembers Dr. Hugh Wilson, a member of the department for more than 40 years and respected for his work on systematic botany centered in vascular plants floristics and crop plant evolution.