News & Events
Vanderbilt researchers use new method to target potentially undiscovered beneficial therapeutic chemicals
Apr. 5, 2022—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator A team of researchers from the Eichman lab and associated with the Evolutionary Studies Initiative led a project that was recently published in mBio. Graduate student Noah Bradley and undergraduate student Katie Wahl (BA21, BCB) were co-first authors on the work studying chemical compounds produced by bacteria....
Medical researchers develop new methodology for molecular mechanisms of disease
Mar. 29, 2022—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator Evolutionary Studies Initiative researcher Eric Gamazon and his former postdoctoral researcher, Dan Zhou (now faculty at Zhejiang University), recently published new software and methodology for understanding the molecular basis of disease. They then applied their work to understanding the genetic basis for COVID-19 severity. The study is...
ESI Group Visits Coon Creek Science Center
Mar. 28, 2022—On Saturday, 3/26/22, a handful of members of the Evolutionary Studies Initiative took a field trip to Coon Creek Science Center (CCSC) to dig for fossils. It was a beautiful day where many trainees that have never studied paleontology got to get out and do some field work. Michael Gibson, a faculty at the University...
Graduate student Jacob Steenwyk receives prestigious 2022 Harold M. Weintraub Award
Mar. 23, 2022—Jacob Steenwyk, a sixth-year doctoral student studying biology in the Rokas Lab, is a recipient of the 2022 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award presented by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Jacob Steenwyk He is the second Vanderbilt student ever to have received this honor, which recognizes outstanding achievement in graduate studies in biological...
Researchers aim to define host-parasite interactions by modeling the effects of coinfection on community dynamics
Feb. 14, 2022—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator Research conducted at Vanderbilt has been published in a new study in The American Naturalist that models how parasites interact to affect their host’s behavior. The results of the research, conducted by Faith Rovenolt, BA’20, and Ann Tate, assistant professor of biological sciences, reinforce an understanding of the influence...
Microbiologists collaborate on new interdisciplinary research program
Feb. 13, 2022—By: Dr. Andy Flick, scientific coordinator Evolutionary Studies Initiative Big surprises can come from the smallest packages, for example, microbes. Assistant professors Drs. Megan Behringer and Benjamin Bratton have formed a collaboration to study the evolution of E. coli – funded by a pilot grant from the Evolutionary Studies Initiative (ESI). The pair use a...
Vanderbilt astronomers discover exceedingly rare star
Feb. 11, 2022—By: Andy Flick, scientific coordinator, Evolutionary Studies Initiative A team of astronomers have made the discovery of a lifetime that will help answer burning questions on the evolution of stars. The group is led by Evolutionary Studies Initiative member and Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Keivan Stassun. Stassun’s team generated a new model that...
Graduate student studies lifestyle-associated diseases as evolutionary mismatch
Feb. 1, 2022—By: Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator Audrey Arner, a first-year Ph.D. student in Dr. Amanda Lea’s lab, recently earned a pilot research grant from the Evolutionary Studies Initiative (ESI) to study the evolutionary mismatch hypothesis. Arner described evolutionary mismatch as, “the same allele that was beneficial in the ancestral environment could be detrimental...
Seven awards given in inaugural Evolutionary Studies Initiative pilot grant program
Jan. 24, 2022—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator The Evolutionary Studies Initiative (ESI) has awarded seven grants to researchers in the initiative. These grants will seed new projects and collaborations. We highlight a quick snapshot of the variable and exciting projects below – with links to full stories on three individual projects. ESI director, Cornelius...
Vanderbilt Researchers Combine Paleontology and Fluid Physics to Uncover Ediacaran Nurseries
Dec. 21, 2021—Knowing how life worked on Earth 550 million years ago can give perspective on how life could evolve on other planets. Geobiologist and Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Simon Darroch and postdoctoral researcher Brandt Gibson are working to figure that out. “At the broadest scale, understanding how, when, and why complex life evolved on this planet gives...
Imaging Technology Shows how Whales’ Sensory Systems have Evolved
Dec. 19, 2021—If you’ve ever had an ear infection that made you dizzy or unbalanced, the infection likely was affecting your vestibular complex—part of the intricate system of hard and soft tissues that make up the inner ear. Knowledge of this structure has been made possible through computed tomography scans—imaging technology that continues to shape our understanding...
Cohen Innovation Fund Supporting Two High-Risk, High-Reward Projects
Nov. 5, 2021—By Aaron Conley Houra Merrikh, professor of biochemistry, and Teru Nakagawa, associate professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, have both been selected to receive one-year research awards from the Stanley Cohen Innovation Fund. The awards will support groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting research, including Merrikh’s study of the molecular drivers of evolution that enables cancer to develop resistance to...
Fossil records help us understand the present and predict future ecosystems
Nov. 5, 2021—By Miquéla Thornton Due to a multitude of human-driven impacts, the Earth is experiencing a biodiversity crisis. It has been referred to as the Sixth Mass Extinction, and scientists are examining similar events in the planet’s geological past looking for clues in ancient ecosystems to help us solve present-day issues. Current events have produced dramatic changes in...
Darwin’s Magnificient Mystery and the Microbiome
Nov. 4, 2021—Darwin’s On the Origin of Species put forth a seminal and revolutionary thesis for the life sciences in 1859: Populations with a common ancestor evolve over time with enough change to become different species that no longer successfully interbreed. This process of descent with modification continues over time to produce lineages of new species. Darwin famously referred to the process of one species becoming two...
Vanderbilt National Fossil Day Event
Oct. 5, 2020—Vanderbilt National Fossil Day Event (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LLoS5-2WB8) Note: This is a past event. You can watch the event at YouTube. Description: Vanderbilt’s Evolutionary Studies Initiative invites you to attend a virtual webinar. During the webinar, each paleontologists will discuss the fantastic creatures they study and how they became fascinated by fossils. The focus of the webinar...