Professor Gregory Copenhaver has published a collaborative paper in Frontiers in Plant Science entitled “The Role of Chromatid Interference in Determining Meiotic Crossover Patterns” together with his colleagues from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. The paper provides a new way to measure how chromosomes interact with one another during reproduction. When these interactions don’t happen correctly chromosomes can mis-segregate which can result in chromosome number imbalances.

To learn more about Professor Copenhaver and his lab, visit his lab website and read the Frontiers article here.

Congratulations to the following spring 2021 Phi Beta Kappa inductees:

Allen, Zachary Paul (“Zach”)
Boone, James Dylan (“Dylan”)
Chan, Priscilla
Cicalo, Alyssa Nina
Crater, Caroline Victoria
Dave, Mili
Furlong, Anna Grace
Greaves, Emily Piper
Gupta, Anahita
Hercules Alfaro, Daniela Del Carmen
Hnatov, Anton Andre
Jones, Catherine Paige
Kellogg, Camryn Gerard
Landry, Pearce Armstrong, II
Lanier, Lindsey Kate
Lee, Hannah Nicole
Li, Jiayi
Li, Samuel Michael
LoFrese, Elizabeth Kaitlyn
McCoppin, Jessica Ann
Montani, Maya Tobin
Morton, Elizabeth Rebecca
Oberhauser, Jane Elizabeth (“Janie”)
Pang, Gehao
Rao, Preeyanka Prasanna
Ruiz, Paloma Armendariz
Salama, Elias Joshua (“Josh”)
Sansbury, Griffin Marsh
Saran, Tanvi
Shah, Khushmi Nitesh
Silver, Benjamin Patrick (“Ben”)
Sobon, Holly Kay
Wainwright, John Michael
Womack, Caroline Kayman
Yang, Shiyue

To learn more about Phi Beta Kappa, visit their website.

Congratulations to 2021 Hagadorn Award recipient Ralph Alberto and runner-up Lauren McCormick!

In the words of Professor Mark Peifer, “The Biology Department at UNC-Chapel Hill is fortunate to have many remarkable students. In addition to Awards given to seniors on the basis of their undergraduate research, each year the Hagadorn Award is given to an outstanding junior Biology major. The recipient is selected on the basis of academic achievement, excellence in biology research and contributions to the Biology Department. This award was established in 1983 in honor of Dr. Irvine Hagadorn, former Chair of the Department of Zoology at UNC.

“Each year this is a challenging task for the selection committee, as we consider many outstanding students. After considering a slate of more than a dozen highly qualified students based on their academic record, their undergraduate research and their service to the Department as TAs, Supplemental Instructors Peer mentors and Biology Ambassadors, we narrowed the field to two finalists and asked them for one-page summaries of their research and service, and also reached out to their faculty research mentors for recommendations. Both finalists were outstanding. After extensive deliberations we selected Ralph Alberto as the 2021 Hagadorn Award winner. His 3.94 GPA, his research in the lab of Dr. Richard Loeser in the Thurston Arthritis Research Center, and service as the Research Executive Head of the UNC Biology Ambassadors and as a Biology TA were remarkable. The runner-up was Lauren McCormick. Her 4.0 GPA, research in the lab of Dr. Jonathan Juliano in the Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and Ecology Lab, and her service as a Supplemental Instructor and TA were also very impressive. We’re fortunate to have such outstanding students in our Department.”

To learn more about the various Chancellor’s Awards at UNC, click here.

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