UNC Biology’s Brian Taylor‘s research has been featured in “Nature’s Compass,” an article in the most recent issue of Endeavors. Congratulations, Brian!

From the article: “How can animals travel thousands of miles on a migratory path yet most people need to rely on GPS to get around town? UNC researcher Brian Taylor explores the ability of many animals to use the earth’s magnetic field for navigation in hopes of improving humanmade systems.”

If you want to learn more about Brian’s experience at Case Western Reserve University, his magnetoreception research, and the Quantitative Biology and Engineering Sciences Laboratory, read the article here.

Eric Hastie, a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology, has been featured in UNC’s The Well for his taking up gardening during the pandemic. In the article, Eric describes his goals to “have something flowering every month of the year and I succeeded. The amount of diversity in plants continues to amaze me.” Eric continued to say that he desired his garden to be a “place where people could connect with nature and recharge. When a friend had to hold their wedding with guests on Zoom, I was honored to host and built an arch for the ceremony entirely with flowers that I grew.”

A big part of Eric’s inspiration came from his roots up north. “Lastly, I wanted to do my part for conservation and remembered the monarch migrations from growing up in New York,” Eric said. “I planted tons of milkweed and successfully raised and released about 100 monarch butterflies. I’ve even gotten better about garden planning and planted hundreds of bulbs for spring to use as a fundraiser for the Durham LGBTQ Center this year.”

The Well’s article focuses on various UNC faculty and staff who all picked up hobbies during their pandemic experience. Read the article here.

Chrystal Starbird, an undergraduate alum from the UNC Department of Biology, has been awarded the first Rising Black Scientist Award for a post-graduate scholar, warranting a feature in Cell magazine. Congratulations, Chrystal!

From the Yale School of Medicine profile: “Chrystal Starbird conducts her postdoctoral research at the Yale Cancer Biology Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Kathryn Ferguson. She studies mechanisms of activation in a unique sub-family of receptor tyrosine kinases that play a vital role in maintaining cellular homeostasis through the clearance of apoptotic cells and control of inflammatory and immune responses. Using a combination of biochemical, biophysical and structural studies, she asks questions about how these important receptors are activated and uses this information to better understand how their function may be altered in disease states. Chrystal completed her PhD in the Quantitative Chemical Biology Training Program at Vanderbilt University in 2017, with a focus in structural biology and biochemistry. While there, she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Tina Iverson on structure-based studies of mitochondrial respiratory enzyme assembly, and the structure-guided engineering of a pathway for synthesis of the antiviral therapy didanosine. Prior to this, she had extensive experience working in various science environments, including work in clinical science and industry. As a non-traditional student in many ways, Chrystal is passionate about increasing equity and accessibility in science. While at Vanderbilt she founded Vanderbilt Women in Science and Engineering (VU-WISE), a group focused on building community and support amongst women in science and their allies. She has continued similar work at Yale, as a co-founder of the Yale School of Medicine Black Postdoctoral Association.”

Be sure to check out this inspiring article here.

UNC Biology’s own Professor Alan Weakley’s work in plant diversity and conservation is featured in the most recent issue of UNC’s Endeavors. Congratulations, Alan!

Professor Weakley is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and is the Director of the UNC Herbarium. From his faculty profile: “I am a plant systematist, plant community ecologist, biogeographer, and conservation biologist focused on the species and systems of the Southeastern United States. Students in my lab focus on the systematics and biogeography of the Southeastern United States, community classification developing the U.S. National Vegetation Classification, and land management, conservation planning, and environmental policy questions involving the conservation of Southeastern United States ecosystems and species.” Read more at his lab’s website here.

Read the full article here.

UNC Biology’s own Corbin Jones co-authored “SARS-CoV-2 infection is effectively treated and prevented by EIDD-2801,” an article featured in Nature (2021). Congratulations, Corbin!

Corbin Jones is a Professor in the UNC Department of Biology. Corbin’s research focuses on genetic analyses of adaptations and interspecific differences in Drosophila, molecular evolution and population genetics of new genes, and evolutionary analysis of QTL and genomic data. Visit Professor Jones’ lab website to learn more.

From the abstract: “All known recently emerged human coronaviruses probably originated in bats1. Here we used a single experimental platform based on human lung-only mice (LoM) to demonstrate efficient in vivo replication of all recently emerged human coronaviruses (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2) and two highly relevant endogenous pre-pandemic SARS-like bat coronaviruses. Virus replication in this model occurs in bona fide human lung tissue and does not require any type of adaptation of the virus or the host. Our results indicate that bats harbour endogenous coronaviruses capable of direct transmission into humans.” Access the article here.

Congratulations to Nicholas Levis for the 2021 Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award in Biological and Life Sciences! Nicholas’ dissertation focuses on plasticity-led evolution in nature and his advisor was Professor David Pfennig. From the website: “Where do new traits come from? Diverse evidence from spadefoot toads supports the controversial hypothesis that environmentally induced changes to development – phenotypic plasticity – can lead to the evolution of new features. More generally, this work provides critical information to inform ongoing debates around the origins of novelty, diversity and adaptation.”

Read more about Nicholas and the other 2021 Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award winners here.

Congratulations to the Dangl Lab for their photo of an Arabidopsis leaf injected with a pathogen featured by NIGMS! According to the photo entry on the NIGMS website, “This is a magnified view of an Arabidopsis thaliana leaf eight days after being infected with the pathogen Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis, which is closely related to crop pathogens that cause ‘downy mildew’ diseases. It is also more distantly related to the agent that caused the Irish potato famine. The veins of the leaf are light blue; in darker blue are the pathogen’s hyphae growing through the leaf. The small round blobs along the length of the hyphae are called haustoria; each is invading a single plant cell to suck nutrients from the cell. Jeff Dangl and other NIGMS-supported researchers investigate how this pathogen and other like it use virulence mechanisms to suppress host defense and help the pathogens grow.” Get a closer look at the photo here: https://images.nigms.nih.gov/pages/DetailPage.aspx?imageid2=2780

Department of Biology’s Brian Taylor has been named the Tanner Award recipient for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Congratulations, Brian!

According to The Well, “Carolina honored 25 faculty members and teaching assistants for their accomplishments with 2021 University Teaching Awards. Given annually, these awards acknowledge the University’s commitment to outstanding teaching and mentoring for graduate and undergraduate students.
‘Throughout a challenging year in the midst of a global pandemic, the winners quickly adapted to new ways of teaching. They persevered to maintain their focus on helping students become critical thinkers and problem solvers, while inspiring them to take on the most important challenges facing society,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Robert A. Blouin. “Our award winners are shining examples of the University’s commitment to effective, innovative teaching.’ The University Committee on Teaching Awards, which oversees the selection process, encouraged students to nominate deserving faculty and graduate teaching assistants for the awards. The committee sought nominations with specific examples that display the nominees’ care for students, mentorship and effective use of classroom methods.”

Read more about the award recipients here.

Congratulations to Dr. Brian Taylor for his publication in The Journal of the Royal Society: Interface. The paper is titled “Long-distance transequatorial navigation using sequential measurements of magnetic inclination angle”. The authors are as follows: Brian Taylor: Lead and Corresponding author, Ken Lohmann, Luke Havens, Cathy Lohmann, and Jesse Granger (Duke University Graduate Student).
Congratulations to Dr. Taylor and his co-authors and we are excited to see what else they have in store! Read the article here.

Congratulations to doctoral student Isai Salas-Gonzalez who is the co-first author of a SCIENCE paper published together with former Dangl lab post-doc Gabriel Castrillo and members of the Castrillo and Salt labs at the University of Nottingham in the UK. Isai and his co-authors show that the root bacterial microbiome can influence the development of the root endodermis and thus define how the endodermis influences nutrient uptake. This depends on the root microbiota’s ability to manipulate the plant hormone Abscissic Acid. The work is important because root endodermal nutrient uptake ultimately defines nutrient levels in our food. Read the paper at: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6525/eabd0695 and an accompanying Perspective at: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6525/125.