Biology faculty, postdoctoral scholars and students conduct research in four broad, overlapping areas:听
Please explore each area below to learn more about faculty labs and research facilities, or view all faculty labs.
Study how bodies function at every level (molecules, cells, tissues, and organs) to help develop methods to treat diseases.
Our labs have expertise spanning various aspects of muscle physiology, feeding and locomotion, physiological ecology, molecular biomechanics, structural enzymology, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Our labs participate in the听UMass Movement Research Center (UMOVE)听and meet regularly with the UMass Lowell student chapter of The Biophysical Society.
Seek to understand the inner workings of the cell, how cell fate is determined and how organismal complexity arises during embryogenesis and cellular differentiation.听
Our labs have expertise in many approaches, including classical genetics, genetic engineering, molecular biology, immunology, biophysics, cytology, and bioinformatics. We employ these techniques in a diverse range of research systems that span the animal kingdom: nematodes, fruit flies, fish, chick, mice, and mammalian cells in culture.
Labs in these areas are part of the听Center for Pathogen Research and Training听(CPRT).
Investigate the origin and maintenance of diversity across all levels of biological organization, from genomes to ecosystems.听
Labs in our department have expertise in evolutionary genomics, invertebrate ecology and evolution, climate change, biodiversity monitoring, evolutionary biomechanics, ecomorphology, phylogenetics, evo-devo, and host-parasite coevolution.
Undergraduates excited to do research in this area are encouraged to pursue the Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology degree option.听
UML Centers and Programs related to Ecology and Evolution include the NSF-funded graduate training program Sustainable Water Innovations in Materials (SWIMMER), the Center for Pathogen Research and Training, and the Climate Change Initiative.听
Understand the molecular basis of organismal traits using a range of molecular genetic and genomic technologies, alongside computational analyses of the resulting large-scale data.听
Research goals include understanding the evolution of adaptations and species, investigating why some individuals are vulnerable to disease, discovering pathogens based on genomic data and investigating the molecular nature of gene regulation.
Undergraduates and Master's students interested in joining this research may consider enrolling in our program options in Bioinformatics or Biotechnology.
Brooke Sienkiewicz conducts fieldwork in the Caribbean as part of her Ph.D. program.