Read the latest news and updates from the Biology department.
The Bioblitz@Oxy is a citizen science event to document the biodiversity of Occidental College. During this one day event, we will identify as many species as possible on the Occidental College campus. These data will provide baseline knowledge about local biodiversity so we can measure how these species respond to future environmental changes.
I will be talking about urban wildlife research projects that I have been involved in along the urban edge and core of the Los Angeles area. I will discuss how technology and citizen science has provided new opportunities to conduct research on elusive species in understudied ecosystems at new scales.
We love to study the hidden world of microbes and are particularly excited to investigate microbes directly in their natural environment. My team is interested in many aspects of the nitrogen cycle. Bioavailable nitrogen is essential for all organisms and is the main limiting nutrient for life on our planet.
Faithful transmission of genetic material is essential for cell viability
and organism health. The occurrence of DNA damage, due to either
spontaneous events or environmental agents, threatens the integrity of the
genome.
Chaparral shrub species of California are known for their ability to survive several environmental stresses, such as recurrent summer drought, periodic wildfire, and winter freezing. For example, many species can re-sprout from the ground after fire, and fire stimulates seed germination for other species.
Ever wonder what mass spec and proteomics are? Come and learn about mass spectrometry in this series of talks and workshops. We will learn about the technique and the kind of information we can obtain from it, as well as learn how to analyze the data (also applicable to any surveying technique such as microarray and RNAseq).
Two biology students have been awarded Science Scholars Fellowships!
Please join us in congratulating Chelsea Blankenchip, a Fletcher-Jones Scholar mentored by Shana Goffredi, and Catherine Conlon, a Norris Scholar mentored by Roberta Pollock!
Biologists have long known that the activity of proteins inside of cells directs the expression of genes. What we generally lack is a quantitative understanding of these regulatory interactions. For example, how does the amount of a regulatory protein determine the nature and extent of regulatory interactions? In this talk, Dr.
Despite the fundamental importance of sleep, its function remains controversial. In recent years sleep research has expanded into non-mammalian model systems, with defined behavioral criteria that distinguish sleep from other quiescent states. Using these criteria, we have found that conditions that cause cellular stress can trigger sleep in the nematode C.