Category: Biology

New research by a multi-institution team featuring several Texas A&M biologists has identified the genetic cause of the skin cancer melanoma in the hybrid offspring of two species of swordtail fish, leading to possible new therapies for treating cancer in humans.

Texas A&M biologists have discovered a fundamental mechanism conserved from fungi to humans that contributes to how the circadian clock regulates rhythms in protein production and protein abundance — critical factors in properly timing the administration of protein-targeting drugs to ensure efficacy and avoid toxicity.

Texas A&M biologist Wayne Versaw has been selected by the Student Government Association to receive the 2020 SGA Open Education Champion Award for his efforts to implement open source textbooks for freshman biology courses — a move that has helped Texas A&M students save thousands of dollars each year since 2018.

Texas A&M biologist Gil Rosenthal has been appointed as associate dean for international programs in the College of Science, where he will work to strengthen and expand the international experiences of undergraduate students and faculty members across all departments and the broader Texas A&M campus.

A new study co-authored by Texas A&M biologist Charles Criscione in collaboration with colleagues in Canada provides rare genetic evidence to support a role for kin selection in the evolution of host-manipulating behaviors in lancet liver flukes — insight that suggests such altruistic traits can evolve simply because they improve the chances of survival and reproduction of genetically related family members.

Twelve years after earning her bachelor's in biochemistry at Texas A&M, biologist Jennifer Dulin '05 got the full-circle chance to return to Texas A&M, where she's pursuing her life's work of making the best of one of the worst situations currently affecting the lives of more than 300,000 people in the United States alone — spinal cord injury.

'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.