University of Dayton Biology Department

BIOFLYER 2009-2010

BIOFLYER Fall 2008

BIOFLYER Fall 2007

Highlights
Biology professor and biology undergraduate both win Sigma Xi awards
April 23, 2010
The University of Dayton chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, presented two biology department members with awards at its annual dinner.  Biology professor Dr. John Rowe received the Sigma Xi Nolan Faculty Research Award for recognition of his outstanding research accomplishments. A long-time advocate for research at UD, Rowe improved the biology graduate program and increased research productivity during his tenure as department chair from 1992-2007. Since that time Rowe launched a nanotoxicology initiative that has earned NSF funding, resulted in over ten publications, and provided reserach support for faculty, postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students. He was also instrumental in developing TREND, the Center for Tissue Regeneration and Engineering at Dayton, which includes 20 researchers from six academic departments and the University of Dayton Research Institute. These researchers perform more than $1 million annually in sponsored research and have compiled more than 500 peer-reviewed articles. It is now a Center of Excellence for the state of Ohio.

Biology student Anna McCrate won the Sigma Xi Undergraduate Research Award. She has been working in the laboratories of biology professor Dr. Mark Nielsen and chemistry professor Dr. Shawn Swavey since her freshman year.  McCrate is supported by a AAAS/Merck Undergraduate Research Award, which funds a UD biology and chemistry collaboration on photodynamic therapy focusing on porphyrins, ring molecules that absorb light and release energy that can damage DNA and preferentially kills cancer cells. McCrate studied the ability of different porphyrins to cleave DNA, and made an exciting discovery that one porphyrin can cleave DNA in the absence of oxygen, a novel mechanism that may allow advances in the use of these therapies on deep tissues.

UD biology student awarded American Physiological Society research fellowship
April 12, 2010
Biology major Matthew Puccetti, whose research advisor is biology professor Dr. Carissa Krane, has been named a 2010 Undergraduate Research Fellow by The American Physiological Society (APS).  During the summer, each Fellow will participate in hands-on research experience in the lab of an established investigator and APS member learning to develop a hypothesis, design and troubleshoot experiments, collect and analyze data, and write up and present results.

Selection of participants was based upon academic merit, the perceived quality of the proposed experience and the availability of appropriate faculty mentors.  Each fellow receives a $4,000 fellowhip summer stipend and travel funds to present their research at the Experimental Biology 2011 meeting in Washington, DC, which is expected to attract nearly 14,000 scientists. 
 
Nature to publish paper co-authored by biology professor Dr. Thomas Williams
April 07, 2010 -
A University of Dayton biology professor may be on his way to answering the old proverb: Can a leopard change its spots?

University of Dayton professor Thomas Williams and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin have identified the biological source of spot pattern development on a fruit fly's wings, which may help explain the developmental and evolutionary processes that have contributed to the remarkable variety of color patterns in other animals, such as butterflies, or even leopards.

Nature published the research findings online April 7 in an article titled "Generation of a novel wing colour pattern by the Wingless morphogen." The article will appear in print in a later issue of Nature. Read more...

A Global Fight Against Buruli Ulcer
March 19, 2010
The World Health Organization has invited biology professor Dr. Eric Benbow to present his research on a disfiguring tropical skin disease at its annual conference. Dr. Benbow is among the lead researchers in the world studying the transmission of the Buruli ulcer into human populations.  Read more....

TREND named Ohio Center of Excellence

March 08, 2010 -

The State of Ohio has once again named the University of Dayton as an Ohio Center of Excellence, this time in the field of biomedicine and health care.

The University's Center for Tissue Regeneration and Engineering at Dayton (TREND) received the designation for its focus on understanding how damaged tissues and organs regenerate and how to harness this phenomenon to engineer or regrow new tissues.

"This prestigious honor will make us more visible within the University, in Dayton and in the state," said Panagiotis Tsonis, TREND Center director. "It will also provide us more opportunities to collaborate with others."  Read more.....