Science & Technology

Richard D. Vierstra, the George and Charmaine Mallinckrodt Professor of Biology, received a four-year $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue his project titled “Phytochromes: Structural Perspectives on Photoactivation and Signaling.”

Joshua Yuan at the McKelvey School of Engineering is using quantum physics to develop technology to image photosynthesis in action without disturbing the process. The research has received support from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Colleen McDermott, a junior environmental analysis major in Arts & Sciences, discussed working with the “Humans of Tyson” project at Tyson Research Center during the recent 2022 Kansas and Missouri Environmental Education Conference.

Combining experts in wildlife ecology, animal movement and veterinary medicine, the new Forest Park Living Lab examines wildlife health, behavior and interactions in the mosaic of ecosystems in Forest Park. The project received a Living Earth Collaborative seed grant in 2020.

Erik Herzog, a professor of biology, was installed as the Viktor Hamburger Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences. His talk was titled “For Whom the Bells Toll: Networked Circadian Clocks and Clock Watchers.”

In Nature Communications, researchers in the laboratory of Robert Kranz, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, shared a new cryo-EM structure and proposed some common mechanisms of heme trafficking in the cell.

A new multidisciplinary center focused on biomolecular condensates — distinct molecular communities that make up the building blocks of life — has launched at the McKelvey School of Engineering.

Jennifer Wang, an assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, won a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for microtubule formation research.

Bruce Carlson, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, recently won a $980,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study neuronal plasticity and the evolvability of animal behavior.

Drawn from more than 20 years of observations at Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo, a long-term study led by primatologist Crickette Sanz in Arts & Sciences documented social ties between individual chimpanzees and gorillas that persisted over years and across different contexts.