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2024 OurDNA Magazine

Our DNA has now been posted on the college website here and the full screen...

Tailocins: The next generation of antibiotics

Talia Backman - Ph.D. student, School of Biological Sciences, shares a micrograph of tailocins. From...

Access Scholar-Ella Bleak

November 18, 2024 Above: Ella Bleak Ella Bleak’s journey as a self-proclaimed science nerd started...

As climate warms, California wildfires are becoming more severe, killing more trees

California’s Caldor Fire burned more than 220,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada in 2021, destroying...

Christmas trees and climate change

Small choices can make a big impact this holiday season, starting with your Christmas tree!...

Biology Student Stories: Mia Sheneman

Finding Success as a Transfer Student: Support Systems and Determination “I am a transfer student...

SACNAS STEM

University of Utah SACNAS cohort in Puerto Rico. Left to Right: Benning Lozada, Palepoi Gilmore, Parker Guzman,...

New Faculty - Avila-Lovera

September 25, 2024 Above: Eleinis Ávila-Lovera Like all living things, plants have to respond and adapt to...

How Harmful is Great Salt Lake Dust

September 17, 2024 As Utah’s Great Salt Lake shrinks, exposing more of its playa, concerns...

Scientists Awarded 1U4U Seed Grants

Above: Microbiolites at Bridger Bay on the northwest corner of Antelope Island. Credit: Utah Geological...

Biology and innovation, preparing for biotech and life science careers

“Innovation in biotechnology is touching on every aspect of our lives, from climate change and...

How Symbiosis Helps Define Evolution

September 3, 2024 Above: Colin Dale, 2012 “We’re looking at how deterministic the process of...

Dream Big and Take the Initiative

September 3, 2024 “Dream big and take the initiative to put yourself out there. If...

Of Ants and Trees: 'Evolutionary deja vu' in the Tropical Rainforest

Ants are famous for their regimented and complex social behaviors. In the tropics, they are...

Rethinking the Carbon Offsets Market

July 18, 2024   Around 1989 an energy company was trying to see if they...

A FRAMEWORK FOR CANCER ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

July 17, 2024 Why do the vast majority of cancers arise late in subjects’ lives?...

Shared Landscapes Wolves, Humans in Rural Turkey

May 30, 2024 Above: Photo of the wolf captured by Çağan Şekercioğlu on eastern Turkey’s...

LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS … AND IN A STUDENT’S MIND

June 13, 2024 Above: Mary Fairbanks BS'23, biology A DNA repair system known as the...

The Promising World of Bacteriophages

Bacteriophages, viruses that attack and destroy bacteria, are everywhere in the natural world where they...

A TALE OF TWO WORMS : ADVANCING EPIGENETICS

Have you ever wondered how a cell knows whether it’s supposed to be skin or...

Utah's Ant Man Found A New Species In His Backyard

June 5, 2024 Above: John "Jack" Longino, in the tropics University of Utah professor Jack...

Establishing a “Wildfire Resilience Collective” Wilkes Center Hackathon, 2024

By Hannah Meier , PhD Student, School of Biological Sciences Caption: [from left to right]: Tegan Lengyel,...

SBS Student Commencement Speaker

For the 2024 University of Utah student commencement speaker Eron Powell, a love of learning...

THE BEAUTY OF MATHEMATICS

April 2, 2024 by Fred Adler After listening to an egregiously (and quite uncharacteristically) dull...

Why can zebrafish regenerate damaged heart tissue

A heart attack will leave a permanent scar on a human heart, yet other animals,...

UTAH SYMPOSIUM IN SCIENCE AND LITERATURE

March 27, 2024 Poet Claudia Rankine, physicist Brian Greene, and neuroscientist and artist Bevil Conway...

FINDING NEMO (THAT IS, NEMATODES) IN THE GSL

March 13, 2024 Brine shrimp and brine flies aren't the only animals inhabiting the Great...

Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Just Got More Interesting

March 13, 2024 Above: Post-doctoral researcher (Werner lab, School of Biological Sciences) examines nematodes recovered...

Excellence In Teaching and Mentoring Award

Sophie Caron, associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences, is the recipient of the...

Nematode proteins shed light on infertility

  We have two copies of each chromosome in every cell in our bodies except...

Christmas trees and climate change

Small choices can make a big impact this holiday season, starting with your Christmas tree!...

PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR AWARD

Associate Professor of biology Sophie Caron is a 2023 awardee. The University of Utah Presidential...

OUR DNA 2023

Read the full issue of OUR DNA 2023, the magazine of the School of Biological...

MECHANISMS OF PLANT MICROBES

'Plants do have immune systems or immune responses, and a lot of people don’t realize...

Nadkarni named NatGeo Explorer at Large

NADKARNI NAMED NATGEO EXPLORER AT LARGE   The National Geographic Society has appointed famed University...

Epiphytes Face Growing Threats

Orchids, mosses, ferns—or epiphytes, defined as nonparasitic plants that grow on other plants—are crucial for...

Fall's Flamboyance

FALL'S FLAMBOYANCE   To many, Utah’s fall leaves are a dazzling display of nature’s beauty....

Thliveris

ANDY THLIVERIS: 'REMEMBER THE UNDERGRADS'   In December 2022, Andrew Thliveris BS’83 made a special...

Rowntree Right Whales

DOING RIGHT BY RIGHT WHALES   More than 50 years ago, Victoria Rowntree, research professor...

CLENCHED FISTS AND FULL BEARDS

CLENCHED FISTS AND FULL BEARDS Humans have not evolved to do any one thing. We...

Spider mite toxin evolution

HOW SPIDER MITES QUICKLY EVOLVE RESISTANCE TO TOXINS Although mites are arthropod-like insects, they have...

MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGY ADDS UP

MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGY ADDS UP The intersection between biology and math may seem like a large...

Stark Message from Maui

A STARK MESSAGE FROM MAUI Earth’s rapidly changing climate is taking an increasingly heavy toll...

Tree-top Barbie Nadkarni

WHAT THE INSPIRATION FOR ‘TREETOP BARBIE’ THOUGHT OF THE ‘BARBIE’ MOVIE The canopy scientist (a.k.a....

Shared Resistance in Breast Cancer

“Cancer cells are often thought of as maverick cells that break the rules and by...

Zundel Admin

HERE COMES TROUBLE SHOOTING That portion of the foliage of trees forming the uppermost layer...

Nadkarni-Bright Red Arrow

WHEN THE ‘BRIGHT RED ARROW” TURNS EARTHWARD “[P]retty much all my adult life I’ve been...

Nature for Everyone

BRINGING NATURE TO EVERYONE A walk in the woods, in the desert, or even a...

GADUSOL: A MORE “E-FISH-ENT” SUNSCREEN

As temperatures rise, and outside activities become more popular, many people are thinking about protecting...

Nobel Winner Capecchi Discovers New Brain Mechanism

The pandemic and its aftermath have raised anxiety to new levels. But the roots of...

Lissy Coley National Academy

“I first stepped foot in a tropical rainforest in 1975 and have been back every...

Jon Wang

Vulnerable forests and the carbon budget   Jon Wang is an Earth systems scientist and...

Rog Undergrad Mentor Award

2023 OUTSTANDING UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH MENTORS The Office of Undergraduate Research has created a faculty award to honor...

Anderegg Allergy Article

If you’ve been itchy, congested, and sneezy for months, you’re not alone. This year’s spring allergy...

Jesus Aguayo

Jesus Eduardo Aguayo's  interest in Biology was fueled during his high school experience. He recalls...

Humans @ the U: Jessica Venegas

“I was born prematurely at the University of Utah Hospital. My parents would tell me...

Bailey Young

“A lot of people assume that pigeons are garbage birds and look at them with...

Seeing the forest for the trees

SBS's "Highly-Cited" researchers spur collaboration in forest science Banner Photo Credit: Rob DeGraff via Flickr...

Remembering K. Gordon Lark

SBS gathered December 15, 2022 to remember the life and legacy of the late K....

Anatomy Education Relies on Body Donor Program

I sat down in a fluorescent plastic chair in an ice cold, windowless room. I...

Paying it Forward: Clarissa Henry

It's generally not a good idea (or even allowed) to take biochemistry as your first...

A Serendipitous Path to Pharmacology

A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW by Baldomero Olivera I have no formal academic training in pharmacology. It's...

OUR DNA Fall 2022

Hot off the press! Fall 2022 issue. Read the full issue of OUR DNA, the...

Haylee Mathews

“Many people who [do] not have previous experience with plant biology,” says Haylee Mathews, “don’t...

Ty Mellor: Taking the Leap

A few more than 2,000 people currently live in Salina, Utah just north of Interstate...

Mario Capecchi Endowed Chair: Ofer Rog

The School of Biological Sciences has appointed Ofer Rog, assistant professor of biology, as the...

A Tale of "Terroir": Porcini Mushrooms Evolved

The Dentinger Lab at the Natural History Museum of Utah has published a provocative new...

The BioKids ethic

Earlier this year, when BioKids was awarded a half-million-dollar stabilization grant, where those monies were...

Meet your new anatomy professor

“I took two years off following my bachelor’s in education,” says Jon Groot, PhD. “All...

Veteran Appreciation Lunch

All veterans in the College of Science and the College of Mines and Earth Sciences...

Stolen Ivory

Isotope data strengthens suspicions of ivory stockpile theft | Science shows the ivory dates to...

A best case scenario that wasn’t planned

A cracker jack team of U of U undergrads works with principal investigator Ben Myers...

Why Bio Majors Love Chem: Meet the TAs

It's de rigeur these days to talk about cross-over science. And to do it. Physicists...

Remembering Norman Curtiss Negus (1926-2022)

Norman Negus passed away just shy of his 96th birthday, after a busy and productive...

Visualizing what to the human eye is infinitesimal

… Nature is what we know – Yet have no art to say – So...

Wilkes at Center of U's Climate Action Plan

A  Message from University of Utah's President Taylor Randall: Salt Lake City, September 20, 2022--I...

Golden Goose Award: Olivera lab

These scientific breakthroughs led to the development of a bladeless LASIK procedure, paper microscopes, and...

‘Indigenous imagination’ can be found in all of us

On July 28, 58 junior high and high school students participated in the Summit Youth...

Global analysis identifies at-risk forests

Forests are engaged in a delicate, deadly dance with climate change, hosting abundant biodiversity and...

What is the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy?

The geography that makes Utah unique—red rock deserts, greatest snow on Earth, cities amidst natural...

Bill Anderegg, Inaugural Director, Climate Center

Backed by $20 million gift, U launches the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy...

Synthetic insect-bacterial symbiosis

A new paper in Current Biology authored by Crystal Su (Dale lab) and other collaborators...

Denise Dearing, New Division Head, NSF

The National Science Foundation has announced a 2-to-4-year appointment of the University of Utah’s M....

A Great-Grandson's Tribute to Utah's "First Dentist"

Remembering George R. Riser … and his tribute to Utah’s “First Dentist.” Salt Lake City,...

Zach Allred: A TA Recalls His Experience with Nielsen's Anatomy Lab

by  Zachary Allred, DO former teaching assistant/mentor, SBS Anatomy Lab above: Zach Allred (left) and...

Stephanie VanBeuge

Lockdowns are something that Stephanie VanBeuge BS'17 knows something about . . . even before...

Elaine Tan

The difference between the flora and fauna of Malaysia and that of the Great Basin...

Seeing the world through ants

Ants are among the most numerous insects in the world, numbering from 10-100,000 trillion individuals...

Remembering Bob Vickery

Emeritus Faculty Dr. Robert Kingston Vickery Jr, 99, passed away July 20, 2022 in Salt...

You are STEM!

One of the best ways to engage in science, technology, engineering and math is through...

Structural Signatures in E. Coli

Motile bacteria are capable of swimming efficiently toward favorable chemical environments and away from inhospitable...

Payton Utzman

Most people wouldn't see a direct line between working on tractors in rural Washington State...

Major Alex Horn, PhD'21 | USAF C-17 Pilot

By Alex Horn I joined the Air Force as an 18-year-old cadet. I came to...

OUR DNA, Spring 2022 Issue

THE SCHOOL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES MAGAZINE OUR DNA magazine is a dynamic 360-degree snapshot of...

Juneteenth Day of Freedom Summit

Juneteenth is a nationally recognized holiday that commemorates the ending of slavery in the U.S....

Tiffany Do, Undergraduate Research Scholar

“My hero is my brother,” says Tiffany Do of her brother Anthony. “He’s the first...

College Merger

College of Mines and Earth Sciences to merge with College of Science. [caption id="attachment_8806" align="alignright"...

Metabarcoding for characterizing wild animal diets

DNA metabarcoding is the large-scale taxonomic identification of complex environmental samples via analysis of DNA...

What gives mammals a tolerance to poisonous compounds?

In a new study, a SBS research team has learned that direct ecological exposure to...

Toto Gets Stamped!

Distinguished Professor Baldomero Olivera is featured in the Filipino Postal Office's "Living Legends" commemorative stamp...