Upcoming Research Seminars

Fall 2024

• Sep 17 - Dr. Thomas M. Huckaba, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Xavier University of Louisiana. Protein degradation as a therapeutic approach to lung cancer (and other pathologies)

• Sep 24 - Ms. Katie Rompf, Adjunct Instructor of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Effects of gut passage on germination of a neotropical shrub (Melastomataceae)

• Oct 29 - Dr. Charles Beard, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The impact of climate change on vector-borne diseases and human health.

• Nov 19 - Dr. Erin Cox, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of New Orleans. Benthic diversity and carbon production in seagrass beds and artificial reefs in the anthropocene.

• Nov 25 - Dr. Anat Belasen, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas Austin. Using genetics to understand threats to amphibian health. Note that this seminar is at 5 pm in MO 628.

 

Past Research Seminars

Spring 2024

• Allyn Schoeffler, PhD., Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Loyola New Orleans. Erythromycin Resistance Methyltransferases: Using Biochemistry and Bioinformatics to Understand Antibiotic Resistance at the Molecular Level.

• Charles Nichols, PhD., Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, LSUHSC School of Medicine. The Anti-inflammatory Effects of Psychedelics.

• Paul Barnes, PhD., Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Understanding the Ecological Role of Solar Ultraviolet Radiation on the Life (and Death) of Plants.

• Kelly Boyle, PhD., Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Fish Bioacoustics in Noisy Waters.

• Andre Moncrief, PhD., Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science. Effects of Riverine Barriers on Avian Evolution in the Amazon Basin.

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Fall 2023

• Whitney Walkowski, PhD., Department of Biology, Loyola New Orleans. Variation in retinal signaling in Anurans: Behavioral Context and Signal Specific Sensitivity.

• Courtney Babin, PhD., Department of Biology, Loyola New Orleans. Gene and Genome Duplication from Flora to Fauna: Tales from an Integrative Biologist.

• Lauren Meckel, PhD., Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, LSUHSC. Application of Bone Histology in Forensic Anthropological Investigations.

• Sallie Fell, PhD. Student at Tulane National Primate Research Center. Utilizing a Non-human Primate Model to Elucidate Innate Immunopathogenesis of HIV Co-infection During Malaria in Pregnancy.

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Spring 2023

• Kendal Leftwich, University of New Orleans. Signal processing of sperm whale data from the Gulf of Mexico. Co-sponsored by Department of Physics.

• Cullen Lilley (BS '17), Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago. Delivery of virtual pathology education with PathElective.com.

• Neil Hammerschlag, Shark Research & Conservation Program. Behavioral ecology of marine predators under global change. Presented as a Walter Moore Ecology lecture.

• Samantha Gerlach, Department of Biology, Dillard University. Cyclotides chemosensitize glioblastoma cells to femosolomide.

 

Fall 2022

• Rachel Dufour (BS '17), LSU School of Veterinary Medicine. Evaluation of Herpes Simplex Virus ICP22 function in early transcription.

• Kimberlee Mix, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Orphan nuclear receptor NR4A2 in arthritis.

• Laurie Earls, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Micropeptides in early adult brain development.

• Dean Grubbs, Coastal & Marine Laboratory, Florida State University. Shark biology and conservation. Presented as a Walter Moore Ecology lecture.

 

Spring 2022

• Amrita Datta. Department of Biology Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Selective targeting of the FAK-Pyk2 axis in chemotherapy resistant breast cancer cells by alpha-naphthoflavone.

• Laurie Earls, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane Brain Institute, Tulane University. Micropeptides in the aging brain. Candidate research seminar via Zoom.

• Tara Essock-Burns, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Pacific Biosciences Research Center, Kewalo Marine Laboratory.
  How a microbe-host dialogue shapes the neighborhood: spatial context underlies a successful animal microbiome. Candidate research seminar via Zoom.

• Marisa Connell, Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, SUNY Upstate Medical University. Kin17 regulates asymmetric cell division in Drosophila neural stem cells. Candidate research seminar via Zoom.

• Cintia Citterio, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan. The role of thyroglobulin in thyroid hormonogenesis. Candidate research seminar via Zoom.

• David White, Department of Biology Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Wetland development and dynamics in the Mississippi River delta over a "Delta Cycle" from a 28-year study.

 

Fall 2021

• Santosh Yadav,  Loyola University, Department of Biological Sciences. Landscape of DNA repair genes in prostate cancer.

• Panel Discussion on Water Management and its Ecological, Health, and Societal Impacts. In Nunemaker Hall. Co-sponsored with Environment Program.

• Murali Anbalagan, Department of Structural & Cellular Biosciences, Tulane University School of Medicine. Novel bone-targeted parathyroid hormone-related peptide antagonists for the treatment of breast cancer bone metastases.

• Rebeca de Jesus Crespo, Department of Environmental Sciences, LSU College of the Coast & Environment. The role of urban heat islands, vegetation cover, and income disparity on the habitat segregation patterns of container breeding mosquito communities.

 

Spring 2020 - Fall 2020 (truncated seminar series due to COVID restrictions)

• Jennifer Simkin, Department of Orthopedics, LSUHSC. Ready, set, regrow: Tissue regeneration in mammals.

 

Fall 2019

• Linda Bui, Department of Environmental Sciences, Louisiana State University. Ants in the saltmarsh: What they tell us about natural and technological disasters.

• Allyn Schoeffler. Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Loyola University New Orleans. Structural specialization in bacterial topoisomerases.

• Anat Burger, Department of Physics, Loyola University New Orleans. Modeling noise in biology.

• Vicki Traina-Dorge, Microbiology and Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine and National Primate Research Center. Efficacy of a recombinant Simian Varicella Virus vaccine following mucosal challenge.

 

Spring 2019

• Patricia Dorn, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Can 'omics approaches help interrupt Chagas transmission in Central America? 

• Stephania Cormier, Louisiana State University Medical Center. A New class of pollutants: Environmentally persistent free radicals in our environmental health.

• Brandon Ballangé​​​​​e, LSU Museum of Natural Science. Praeter Naturam: Ecology beyond nature.

• Frank R. Moore, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi. Stopover biology of migratory songbirds: Challenges of long distance travel.

• Laurie Earls, Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Tulane Brain Institute, Tulane University. It's the little things: micro-RNAs and micro-peptides in age-related psychiatric symptoms.

 

Fall 2018

• Tracy Fredin and John Shepard, Center for Global Environmental Education, Hamline University. One-River Thinking: Communicating science to general audiences through interactive multimedia.

• Don Hauber, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Genomic variation of introduced Salvinia minima.

• Fern Tsien, Department of Genetics, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. Genetics of hearing disorders in the Louisiana Acadian and Mexican Mayan founder populations.

• Richard Day, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, USGS. Hydrology and the functioning of forested wetlands.

• Jeff Gidday, Department of Ophthalmology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. Adaptive Epigenetics: The beneficial effects of stress.

• David Bode, New Orleans BioInnovation Center, New Orleans and Andrea Alarcon, LaCell, New Orleans. Biotech Careers Inside and Outside the Lab.

 

Spring 2018

• Matt Toomey, Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine. Shared biochemical mechanisms of color vision and coloration in birds.

• Vladimir Galatenko, Tauber Bioinformatics Research Center, University of Haifa. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

• Melyssa Bratton, The Cell, Molecular and Bioinformatics Core Facility, Xavier University. Endocrine resistant breast cancer: leveraging micro-fluidics to explore the metastatic milieu.

• Zach Lewis, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University. Lung loss in salamanders.

• Aditya Dutta, Department of Medicine, Columbia University. Deciphering developmental and metabolic cues to understand cancer biology.

• Craig Hood, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Loyola's 30 years of research on the invasion biology of Phragmites australis in the Mississippi River Delta.

• David Reeves, USFWS Gulf Restoration Team. The ecology of fishes and invertebrates associated with Louisiana's offshore oil and gas platforms. 

• Kelly Sherman, Department of Pharmacology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. Measuring circadian activity in Drosophila.

Fall 2017

• Zachary Darnell, Division of Coastal Sciences, The University of Southern Mississippi. Thermal constraints on reproduction in marine and intertidal crabs.

• Susan Chiasson, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Spatiotemporal patterns of petroleum hydrocarbons and wastewater compounds, and their effects on growth and gene expression in the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus.

• Susanne Neugart, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Leibniz-Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, Grossbeeren, Germany. Flavonoid glycosides-identification and quantification of antioxidant and shielding compounds in various plant species.

• Kirsten Termine, Department of Genetics, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. Identifying germline copy number variations in hereditary prostate cancer using next-generation sequencing approaches.

• Megan La Peyre, School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. Where's the reef? How effective restoration monitoring increases our ecological understanding of natural systems and restoration success. 

Spring 2017

• Craig Hood, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Citizen science: real science that engages everyone.

• John Mohan, Texas A&M University at Galveston. Reconstructing life histories of fishes and sharks using chemical and electronic tags.

• Crescent Combe, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, LSUHSC School of Medicine. Intrinsic mechanisms of frequency selectivity in CA1 pyramidal neurons.

• Tara Massad, Department of Biology, Rhodes College. Chemical ecology from the individual to the community.

• Rob Jackson, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Carbon-water interactions of ecosystems, climate, and energy supply.

• Jeffery Gimble, LaCell, LLC, New Orleans BioInnovation Center. Adipose Stromal / Stem Cells.

• Elizabeth Roberson, Environmental Sciences, Wright State University. Individual to community level responses to plant invasion: from herbivores to predators.

• Silvia Justi, Department of Biology, University of Vermont. Insights into disease transmission through genomic analysis.

Fall 2016

• Nicholas de la Rua, Louisiana State University Health Science Center. From evolutionary relationships of insects to lung immunology - How research can help you realize your dreams.

• Kristen Dahl, Department of Marine Science at University of South Alabama. Current research on rapidly expanding invasive lionfish populations in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

• Matthew Cable, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Louisiana State University Health Science Center. Epigenetic Highlights in sarcomagenesis. 

• Donald Schoolmaster, National Wetlands Research Center. Using empirically-inspired mathematical models to address ecological problems: a theorist's attempt at being useful.

• Sunshine Van Bael, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University. Fungal and bacterial symbionts in wetland plants.

Spring 2016

• Phil Bucolo, Department of Biological Sciences at Tulane University and Loyola University. Are you alive down there? Investigating productivity contributions of the Arctic Ocean's microphytobenthos near Hanna Shoal in the Chukchi Sea.

• Erik Aschehaug, Department of Biological Sciences at Louisiana State University. Biodiversity, Species Interactions, and Plant Community Structure.

• Yao-Zhong Liu, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Tulane University. The impact of oil spill to lung health - Insights from an RNA-seq study of human airway epithelial cells. 

• Patricia Scaraffia, Department of Tropical Medicine at Tulane University. Regulation of nitrogen metabolism in vectors of dengue and yellow fever viruses.

Fall 2015

• Howard Jelks, Southeast Ecological Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey. Conservation of inland fishes: Challenges and Insights. 

• Raymond Danner, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, Smithsonian Institution. The bird bill as a heat radiator.

• Daniel Holt, Department of Earth & Space Sciences, Columbus State University. The not-so-silent world of streams: Insights into the significance of sound to fishes.

• Jen Lamb, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi. Phylogeography and population genetics of dusky salamanders in the Gulf Coastal Plain.

Spring 2015

• Jill Daniel, Neuroscience Program and Department of Psychology, Tulane University. Estrogen: Impact on memory and the brain.

• Jonathan Kurtz, School of Medicine, Tulane University. Host protection & antigen-specific CD4 T cell immunity is dictated by anatomical location during acute & chronic Salmonella infection.

• Scott Walter, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University and Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. The power of birds in conservation. 

• Michael Osland, National Wetlands Research Center Lafayette, U.S. Geological Survey. Climate change and coastal wetlands: Ecological transitions across the Gulf of Mexico.

Fall 2014

• Sunyoung Kim, Department of Biochemistry, Louisiana State University Health Science Center New Orleans. Design principles of kinesin motor proteins.

• Jordan Karubian, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. Animal-mediated gene flow in a tropical palm tree, Oenocarpus bataua.  

• Jeffery Tasker, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University. Stress-induced endocannabinoid regulation of synaptic inhibition in the basolateral amygdala and anxiety behavior.

• Stacy Drury, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Tulane University School of Medicine. Buffering the long term impact of early life stress.

Spring 2014

• Craig Hood, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Large mammal biodiversity and activity patterns at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park: Pre- and post- Katrina.

• Liz Derryberry, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. Singing in the city: Noise-dependent song variation affects communication in an urban songbird.

• Loretta Battaglia, Department of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Climate change impacts on coastal plant communities: Constraints and opportunities for migration.

Fall 2013

• Amy Lesen, Biology Department, Dillard University. Cosatal and urban ecology: From microbes to rodents.

• Margaret Couvillon, Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, England. Dancing bees indicate seasonal foraging challenges.

• Christopher Gabler, U.S. Geological Survey, National Wetlands Research Center Lafayette and the Department of Biological Sciences and Biochemistry, University of Houston. Restoration of prairies and wetlands invaded by Chinese tallow tree: The importance of climate, ontogeny and timing. 

• Mac Alford, Department of Biological Sciences. University of Southern Mississippi. When in doubt, put it in...the Salicaceae? How an obscure group of tropical plants solved the mystery of the evolution of willows and cottonwoods.

• Juan Calix, Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham. How innate immunity shapes the face of Pneumococcal disease.

 Spring 2013

• Alex Kolker, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON). Controls on wetland development in the Mississippi River delta. 

• Benjamin Hall, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University. Cellular mechanisms underlying the rapid antidepressant actions of ketamine.   

• Sunshine Van Bael, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. The cryptic ecology of plant-fungal-insect interactions.  

• Peter Van Zandt. Department of Biology. Birmingham-Southern College. Birmingham, AL.Moths as environmental indicators". 

• Claudia Herrera. ". Department of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.  Tulane University. New Orleans, LA.Molecular eco-epidemiology of Trypanosoma cruzi 1 in Latin America

Fall 2012

• Paul W Barnes, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Plant and ecosystem responses to solar UV radiation. 

• David C. Heins, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. The threespine stickleback and the cestode parasite Schistocephalus: Is the hand inside the puppet, isn't it?   

• James B. McLachlan, Tulane University Health Science Center. Visualizing antigen-specific CD4 cell immunity to Salmonella infection: Why location matters.

• Christopher Williams, College of Pharmacy, Xavier University New Orleans. The role of NURR1 orphan nuclear receptor signaling in breast cancer etiology and progression.

• June Liu, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Neuroscience Center of Excellence, Louisiana State University Health Science Center New Orleans.How stress alters memory and synaptic transmission in the brain.

Spring 2012

• Gary Schaffer, Department of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University. Using wastewater to restore the wetlands of coastal Louisiana: Testing the controversy.

• Stephania Cormier, Department of Pharmacology, LSU Health Science Center New Orleans. Developmental regulation of IL-4Ra and the immunopathogenesis of respiratory syncytial virus infection.

• Etienne Waleckx, Visiting Assitant Professor, Loyola University New Orleans. Do wild populations of Triatoma infestans (the main Chagas disease vector) represent an epidemiological threat in Bolivia? 

• Brent Christner, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University. Antarctic subglacial environments: The other deep biosphere.

• Rosalie Anderson, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. The embryonic chick: A model for joint regeneration.

 Fall 2011

• Jeff Hobden, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology, LSU Health Science Center New Orleans. Dirty knees and bum hips; bacterial biofilms and prosthetic joint infections.

• Renata Ribeiro, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Tulane University.  Bird behavior and ecology: case studies from Ecuador and coastal Louisiana.  

• Brian Rowan, Department of Structural & Cellular Biology, Tulane Cancer Center, Tulane University. Targeting Src kinase and microtubules as a novel therapeutic strategy for triple negative breast cancer.

• Sean Powers, Marine Sciences & Dauphin Island Sea Lab, University of South Florida. Multiple predator effects and their implications for ecosystem based management of marine fisheries.  

• Philip Bucolo, Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham. Motile responses of brown algal epiphytes of the Western Antarctic Peninsula and a Gulf of Mexico sea grass bed.

Spring 2011

• Hank Bart, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. Gene trees vs. species trees: a growth hormone perspective on relationships of rayfin fishes.

• Jan Rines, School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island. Exploring the dazzling diversity of microscopic life in the sea.

• Myra Hughey, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Integrating species interactions and spatial dynamics to explain insect distribution and abundance on a patchy resource.

• Brian Crother, Department of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University. Primordial germ cell development: processes, patterns, evolution, and macroevolutionary implications.

• Thomas Dean, School on Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University. Possible connections between wood anatomy and population dynamics in even-aged conifer monocultures.

• Jim Wee, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Algal gumbo: investigations around, in, and from the Lake Pontchartrain basin estuary.

Fall 2010

• Jim Moroney, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University. CO₂ concentrating mechanisms: how cyanobacteria and algae enhance photosynthetic CO₂ fixation.

• Nancy Rabalais, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. The continuing saga of dead zones on the Louisiana shore.

• Chris Gissendanner, Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Monroe. An organ and an orphan: a worm's story.

• Melissa Kaintz, Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries. A rapid response effort to remove introduced tilapia from Port Sulphur, LA.

• Caz Taylor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. Population dynamics of blue crabs: potential impacts of the deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Spring 2010

• Julie Gauthier, Department of Biological Sciences. Loyola University New Orleans. Role of oyster host internal defense components in Perkinsus marinus virulence.

• Gary LaFleur, Jr., Department of Biological Sciences, Nicholls State University. Reproductive biomarkers and novel reproductive strategies in species of Louisiana fisheries.

• Don Hauber, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. The common reed in the Mississippi River delta marshes: new haplotypes and high genetic diversity.

• Susan Mopper, Center for Ecology, University of Southwestern Louisiana. Battle in the marsh: invasive irises in Louisiana.

• Manjong Han, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University. Regeneration and BMP signaling in mammals.

• Christopher Hall, School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Berry College. Awwww Mom!: Evidence for strain-associated differences in the congenital transmission of the Chagas parasite.

Fall 2009

• Eric Dumonteil, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán. Fighting the kissing bug: new tools against an old killer.

• Simon Lailvaux, University of New Orleans. Sex, death and whole-organism performance: studying functional capacities from sexual selection & life-history perspectives.

• Terry Root, Stanford University. Biodiversity and global warming: is triage needed.

• Mary Breslin, LSU Health Science Center New Orleans. Demonstration of the safety & efficacy of transcriptional-regulated viral gene therapy for cancer.

• Geoff Sinclair, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON). Physical and chemical constraints on dinoflagellate ecology in the Gulf of Mexico.

Spring 2009

• Kimberlee Mix, Program in Biochemistry, Mt. Holyoke College. Protection roles for the orphan nuclear receptor NURR1 in cartilage.

• Doug Johnston, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, & Parasitology, LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans. 14-3-3 proteins and the regulation of putative virulence factors in the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans.

• Douglas Weiser, Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington. Shaping the vertebrate body: cell migration in development and disease.

• David White, Department Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. The Mississippi River’s influence on wetland substrate elevation and plant growth within the bird-foot delta after 24 yrs of study.

• John Paul, College of Marine Science, University of South Florida. Evolution of the Biobuoy for red tide detection.

• Charles Bell, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Evolution and diversification in an alpine ecosystem.

• Anand Viswanathan, Gene Therapy Program, LSU Health Sciences Center. Development of feline transgenic knockout model for cystic fibrosis research.

Fall 2008

• Christopher Gabler, Department of Biology, Rice University. Ecological restoration of a freshwater wetland invaded by Chinese tallow tree.

• Marshall Sundberg, Division of Biological Sciences, Emporia State University. What developmental morphology says about evolution in maize.

• Kevin Caillouet, Department of Tropical Medicine, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University. The impact of hurricanes on mosquito-borne diseases.

• Richard Porter & Calvin Porter, Department of Biology, Xavier University. Movements, populations, and habitat preferences of 3 species of pocket mice in the Big Bend region of Texas.

Spring 2008

• Nathan Markward, Pennington Biomedical Research Center and LSU Department of Experimental Statistics. Dissection of the phenotypic variance: Are related individuals needed to demonstrate a genetic effect?

• Yves Carlier, Laboratory of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Université Libre De Bruxelles, Belgium. Congenital Chagas disease: from laboratory to public health.

• Fiona Inglis, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University. Learning to walk: understanding the basis of synaptic plasticity and psychiatric disease.

• Sergio Sosa-Estani, Department of Epidemiology, Ministry of Health, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Evidence supports treating Trypanosoma cruzi infection. 

• Michael Blum, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. Genetic dissection of an expanding hybrid swarm.

Fall 2007

• Shawn Vincent, Department of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University. Sex, ecology, and the P-matrix: are there limits to the evolution of dimorphism?

• Mary Breslin, Research Institute for Children, LSU Health Sciences Center. Transcription-regulated suicide gene therapy for neuroendocrine cancers.

• Hank Bart, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. Systematics of Ictiobinae – something fishy.

• Laura Schrader, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University. Potassium channel modulation of learning and memory.

• Kyle Harms, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University. Processes maintaining species diversity in a Neotropical forest.

Spring 2007

• Trent Holliday, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University. The last of the Neandertals & modern human evolution.

• Rick Miller, Department of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University. Evolution of regulatory genes in morning glories.

• Rebecca Howard, National Wetlands Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey. Wetland restoration in Louisiana: importance of genetic diversity within plant communities.

• Clark Pearson, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. Trophic diversity in two grassland ecosystems.

Fall 2006

• Mike Ferris, The Research Institute for Children, LSU Health Science Center New Orleans. Species abundance and bacterial vaginosis.

• Jeff Chambers, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. Wind driven tree mortality impacts on forest structure and functioning in the Amazon and Gulf Coast.

• David Patterson, Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. New taxonomically intelligent tools for biology on the internet. Walter Moore Lecture in Ecology.

• Vicki Traina-Dorge, Division of Microbiology. Tulane University National Primate Research Center. Pathogenesis of viral infections animal model development.

• David Millie, Florida Institute of Oceanography. Phytoplankton as ecological sentinels: characterizing the influences of environmental forcing within great lakes coastal systems.

• Gene Turner, Coastal Ecology Institute, Louisiana State University. Linking landscape and water quality in the Mississippi River Basin for 200 years.

Spring 2006

• Duncan Irschick, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. Sexual selection and performance: An integrative view.

• Lee Dyer, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. Extreme weather events and tritrophic interactions.

• Andrew Curtis, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University. After Katrina: using a Geographic Information System to respond and recover.

• Ham Farris, Center for Neuroscience. LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans. Auditory processing in crickets: listening to bats and calling songs. 

• Volker Stiller, Department of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University. The vulnerable pipeline: water transport in plants with emphasis on rice.

Spring 2005

• Jason Jolliff, College of Marine Science, University of South Florida. Three-dimensional computer modeling of ocean color: understanding physical, optical, & biological processes in the coastal ocean.

• Rodney Nairn, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The platyfish-swordtail hybrid melanoma model & the genetics of tumor function.

• Fiona Inglis, Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Tulane University. Learning to walk: motor neurons, gravity, & glutamate receptors.

• Michael Willig, Division of Environmental Biology, National Science Foundation. Biodiversity in a changing world: pattern, process, & preservation.  2005 Walter Moore Lecture in Ecology.  

• Kyle Piller, Department of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University. Studies of a traveling ichthyologist: here, there, and everywhere.

• Robert Paine, Department of Biology, University of Washington. The conundrum of alternative states in deterministic rocky shore systems. And are they stable? 15th Annual Southeastern Louisiana Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Group Lecture.

• Michel Tibayrenc, Research for Development Institute, Montpellier, France. Evolutionary genetics and molecular epidemiology of pathogens; the Trypanosoma cruzi story; and the ecological niche of infection, genetics and evolution: why is it so timely?

• Arthur Hass, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans. Cell regulation through ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like proteins.

Fall 2004

• Craig Hood, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Ecology of a fragmented landscape: mammalian biodiversity of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park.

• Patricia Dorn, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Preliminary analysis of the use of microsatellite markers for Triatoma dimidiata, Chagas disease vector.

• Jeffery Hobden, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, & Parasitology, LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans. The molecular pathogenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa corneal infections.

• Sammy King, School of Renewable Natural Resources, Lousiana State University. Restoration and habitat management in the Lower Mississippi River alluvial valley: issues and opportunities.

Spring 2004

• Mike Taylor, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University. Speciation without barriers: a colorful twist on Caribbean reef fishes.

• Michael Guill, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Architectural and phylogenetic constraints on life-history variation in the darters.

• Wes Colgan, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana Tech University. Mushrooms gone down under: the story of Australian truffles. 

• Daniel Wang, Department of Biology, University of Miami. Genetic structure of rice rat populations in South Florida: implications for conservation. 

• Nicola M. Anthony, Biology Department, University of New Orleans. Molecular ecology and conservation of western lowland gorilla.

• Michelle Wood, Center for Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Oregon. A new view of picocyanobacteria in the coastal ocean.

• James Robinson, Department of Pediatrics Infectious Diseases, Tulane University School of Medicine. Antigenic structure of HIV envelope glycoproteins.

Fall 2003

• Leslie Lyons, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California at Davis. Companion animals as models for human disease and traits.

• Leslie Lyons, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California at Davis. Cloning animals: Frankenstein's monster or just another pussycat.

• David Heins, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. The interplay between little fish & big parasites.

• Donna Drury, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, University of Southern Mississippi. Effects of grass shrimp (Palaemonetes) and nutrient manipulation on widgeongrass (Ruppia maritima) conditions, epiphyte load, and epiphyte community composition.

• Michael Schurr, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane University Health Science Center. The role of Alginate-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis pneumonia.

Spring 2003

• Christian Kamenik, Institute for Limnology, Austrian Academy of Sciences. Climate reconstruction based on Chrysophyte resting stages.

• Jenneke Visser, Coastal Studies Institute, Louisiana State University. Changes in Louisiana’s coastal wetland vegetation.

• Jay Pinckney, Department of Oceanography, Texas A & M University. To HAB and to HAB not – relating ecological processes to harmful and nuisance algal blooms in Galveston Bay, Texas.

• Kent Buchanan, Department of Microbiology & Immunity, Tulane University Health Sciences Center. TBA.

Fall 2002

• Quay Dortch, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. Harmful algal blooms-a global and local problem.

• Mark Hester, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. The importance of salinity and flooding stress in structuring coastal plant communities.

• Thomas Wiese, College of Pharmacy, Xavier University and School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University. Exploring the estrogen, androgen and progesterone receptor interactions of endocrine disrupting chemicals.

• Albrey Arrington, Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Alabama. Dynamics of community assembly, disassembly, and reassembly in a neotropical floodplain river.

• William Halford, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine. Understanding how Herpes simplex virus alternates between productive replication and latency.

• Terry Christenson, Department of Psychology, Tulane University. Spider sex - the throbbing palp and long copulation.

Spring 2002

• Robert Andersen, Culture Center for Marine Phytoplankton, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences Maine. Protistologist looks at species concepts.

• Michael Silverman, Oregon Health Sciences University. Protein rtransport in cultured hippocampal neurons.

• Gene Godbold, College of William & Mary. Involvement of small GTPases in the pathogenicity of the protozoan parasite Entaboeba histolytica.

• Rosalie Anderson, Tulane University. Sonic hedgehog Regulation in the Developing Vertebrate Limb.

• Don Baltz, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University. Nursery habitat food webs in coastal Louisiana: models for juvenile spotted seatrout and red drum.

• Prescott Deininger, Cancer Center for Basic Science Programs, Tulane University Medical School. Human retroelements: a significant risk factor?

• Dawn Wesson, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Modeling risk for mosquito transmitted viruses in Louisiana.

• Douglas Hixson, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Brown University Medical School. Please give me some hepatic stem cells, but I’ll pass on the onions.

• Tom Doyle, United States Geological Survey. Monitoring and modeling tallow invasion and Sabal palm ingrowth of a bottomland hardwood forest in the Louisiana delta.

Fall 2001

• Letitia Beard, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Religion and alcoholism in Luiseno Mission Indians-a sabbatical study.

• Henry Hagedorn, Department of Entomology, University of Arizona. Exquisite vermin: discovering what makes mosquitoes tick.

• Jim Moroney, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University. Carbon dioxide levels in air: the interplay between photosynthetic organisms and the atmosphere.

• Catherine Correa, Louisiana Tumor Registry, Department of Health and Preventative Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. Cancer incidence in Louisiana and the industrial corridor.

• Whit Gibbons, Department of Ecology, University of Georgia and Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. The global decline of reptiles, déjà Vu amphibians: how do we protect our hidden biodiversity?

• Cindy Morris, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Tulane Medical Center. Angiogenesis.

• Marion Freistadt, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. RNA virus pathogenesis.

Spring 2001

• Jerry Howard, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Organization of foraging in leaf-cutting ants.

• Mark Beilke, Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Section, Tulane School of Medicine. Retroviral co-infections in New Orleans.

• Bernard B. Rees, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Responses of the gulf killifish to hypoxia: from behavior to biochemistry.

• Nancy Colburn, Gene Regulation Section, National Cancer Institute. Molecular targets for cancer prevention or what causes cancer.

• Suzanne Fredericq, Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Phylogeny, biogeography and life history evolution in the marine red algal Family Phyllophoraceae (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta).

• Joel Trexler, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University. Can marine protected areas restore and conserve stock attributes of reef fishes?

• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University. Human natures and the human future.

Fall 2000

• David White, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Ecological research in Mexico and other adventures while on sabbatical leave.

• Robert Garry, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane School of Medicine. Possible role for an endogenous retrovirus in human breast cancer.

• Jim Grace. National Wetlands Research Center, United States Geological Survey. Species diversity in plant communities: towards a synthesis of competing theories.

• Michael Poirrier, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Effects of Mississippi River diversions, hurricanes, and restoration efforts on the environmental quality of Lake Pontchartrain.

• Scott Michael, Department of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, Tulane University. Retroviral assembly and proteolytic processing: new drug targets for HIV.

• T.J. Evans, USDA-ARS-Southern Regional Research Center. Photobioreactors and phosphorus: new culturing technologies for use in experimental phycology.

Spring 2000

• Mark Schneegurt. Isolation and characterization of novel soil bacteria active in the degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. 

• Karl Indest. A model system to study gene expression in Borrelia burgdorferi. 

• Maureen Shuh. The HTLV-I transforming protein Tax: a molecular mechanism for cancer. 

• Sharon Isern. Development of tropism-modified adenoviral vectors for targeted gene delivery. 

• Sean Powers, Institute of Marine Science, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The role of ecological experiments in management and conservation of marine and estuarine resources.

• Stephen Ross, Department of Biology, University of Southern Mississippi. Habitat and the conservation of riffle inhabiting fishes: population and assemblage responses to temporal and spatial habitat change.

• Joseph Pechmann, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Population regulation, complex life cycles, and the need for a metamorphosis in conservation.

• Cesar Fermin, Tulane University Medical Center. Temporary and permanent expression of s-100ß.

• Richard Dicarlo, Louisiana State University School of Medicine. Vaccination against HIV: the current status of clinical trials.

Fall 1999

• Karen Kandl, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. What can genetics contribute to conservation? Examples from mussels and mosquitofish.

• Mary Clancy, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Higamous, hogamous, are these genes orthologous? Possible roles of a "mammalian" enzyme in yeast meiotic development.

• Paul Fidel, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology, Louisiana State University Medical Center. Host defense against mucosal candidiasis: site specific differences.

• Paul Ewald, Department of Biology, Amherst College. Evolutionary control of virulence and antibiotic resistance: backdoor alternatives to frontal assaults.

• Hank Bart, Jr. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Tulane University. Fish diversity in the southeastern United States: testing the limits.

Spring 1999

• Jeffrey Green, Department of Anatomy, Louisiana State University Medical Center. Proteases in Shrimp fertilization. 

• Joseph J. Luczkovich, Department of Biology and Institute for Coastal and Marine Resources, East Carolina University. How to study spawning in estuarine fishes -- listen.

• Joseph Travis, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida State University.  Population dynamics and life-history expression in Poeciliid fishes.

• James M Hill, Department of Ophthalmology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience, Louisiana State University Medical Center. Everything you always wanted to know about the AIDS pandemic but were afraid to ask.

• Robert F. Garry, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine. The earliest confirmed case of AIDS in the United States: implications for the origins of the pandemic. 

• Betsey Dresser, Audubon Endangered Species Center (ACRES). Reproductive strategies for endangered species in captivity.

• Lauren Chapman, Department of Zoology, University of Florida. Conservation and ecology of tropical freshwater fishes. 

Fall 1998

• Robert F. Garry, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine. The earliest confirmed case of AIDS in the United States: implications for the origins of the pandemic. 

• Donald P. Hauber, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Chromosome pairing in a natural autotetraploid: Machaeranthera pinnatifida.

• Pamela J. Hornby, Department of Pharmacology, Louisiana State University Medical Center.  The brain in the ‘brain-gut’ highway: central influences on gastric and esophageal motor functions.

• Mario T. Philipp, Department of Parasitology, Tulane Medical Center & Tulane Primate Center. Spirochetal lipoproteins and the control of inflammation in Lyme disease.

• David S. Gross, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Louisiana State University Medical Center (Shreveport). How heat shock factor battles nucleosomes to activate transcription.

• Wayne V. Vedeckis, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Louisiana State University Medical Center. The role of glucocorticoid receptor and alternative promotor utilization in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

• Phillip C. Stouffer, Department of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University. Area effects on understory birds in Amazonian forest fragments.

Spring 1998

• Mark Ford, National Wetlands Research Center, United States Geological Survey. Soil elevation and shallow subsidence in Louisiana Coastal marshes: impacts of mammal herbivores and spray dredging.

• Tom Sherry, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. How are populations of neotropical migrant birds limited?

• Andy Nyman, Department of Biology, University of Southwestern Louisiana. Exploring the role of plant/soil interactions in wetland dynamics.

• Carolyn Ferguson, Department of Botany, University of Texas. Phylogenetic relationships of eastern North American phlox (Polemoniaceae) based upon molecular data.

• Sonia Montenegro-James, Oschner Alton Medical Foundation & Department of Tropical Medicine, Tulane University. Cytokines and immunopathogensis of Chagas disease.

• Jack Lancaster, Jr., Department of Physiology & Medicine, Louisiana State University Medical Center. The physical properties of nitric oxide as a critical determinant of its biological actions.

Fall 1997

• Craig Hood, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Geometry meets Biology - geometric morphometric approaches to the study of biological forms.

• David Millie, USDA-ARS-Southern Regional Research Center. Using algal photophysiology to characterize scalar rate processes.

• Jakob Waterborg, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri Kansas City. Histone acetylation reveals that gene transcription in plants affects the structure of chromatin in a different way than in animals.

• Laura Levy, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine. Pathobiology of SIV-associated lymphoma.

• Carol Burdsal, Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Tulane University. Mesoderm differentiation in the mammalian embryo.

• Arthur Lustig, Department of Biochemistry, Tulane University School of Medicine. Telomere dynamics in yeast.

Spring 1997

• Ken Muneoka, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University. Fibroblast growth factors and cell migration in limb morphogenesis.

• Ousmane Koita, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University. Use of PCR-based methods to study coloniality, severe disease and transmission of malaria.

• Pat O’Hara, Amherst College. Flourescence energy transfer as a probe of structure and dynamics in biological sciences.

• Peter Siver, Connecticut College. Historical changes in Connecticut lakes.

• Mary White, Department of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University. Evolution of multi-gene families in vertebrates and invertebrates.

• Frank Jordan. Departments of Biology and Marine Science, Jacksonville University.

• Jared Diamond, University of California at Los Angeles. The evolution of adaptations for fast-and-binge feeding in snakes and frogs.